Rehearsal is a form of self-talk used to support short-term memory. Historically, the study of rehearsal development has diverged from the study of self-talk more generally. The current experiment examines whether two characteristics of self-talk (impact of task difficulty and self-talk's narrative vs. planning purpose) are also observed in…

In 3 experiments, 9-month-old infants' expectations for what distinct count noun labels refer to were investigated. In Experiment 1, a box was opened to reveal 2 objects inside during familiarization: either 2 identical objects or 2 different objects. Test trials followed the same procedure, except before the box was opened, the contents were…

In three experiments, adults and 30-month-old children (1) selected a novel object as the referent for a novel term; (2) extended the new word to another exemplar; and (3) allowed the new word to preempt another novel label from applying to the just-named object. (BC)

Two experiments examined preschoolers' ability to apply multiple labels to representational objects and to people. Found that preschoolers reliably produced or accepted several words per entity and accepted a high percentage of class-inclusive and overlapping word pairs. The mean number of words produced in labeling task was related to receptive…

Two experiments used the preferential looking task to assess early word comprehension in 12- to 24-month olds. Results indicated that when target stimuli were named, 12-month olds displayed an increase in target looking for typical--but not atypical--targets, whereas 18- and 24-month olds displayed increases for both. (Author/KB)

Twelve two year olds were taught novel count nouns for related but unfamiliar objects. Children's interpretation of the relations between the nouns was mediated by the similarity of the objects, a result that suggests that, by age two, children have the conceptual and lexical abilities necessary for establishing hierarchical relations. (LB)