Resumen de Infants' Developing Appreciation of Similarities Between Model Objects and Their Real-World Referents
Barbara A. Younger, Kathy E. Johnson
Previous research suggests that model competence does not emerge until relatively late in infancy (20–26 months). Development was systematically analyzed within 3 key areas—count noun learning, dual representation, and categorization—hypothesized to support the emergence of model competence in the second year. In an object-handling preferential looking task, 21- to 26-month-olds matched model objects to referents only when count noun knowledge was high. When dual representation demands were reduced through the use of pictures in place of model objects, 20-month-olds with low count noun vocabularies succeeded in relating symbols to referents. Finally, change in infants' construal of a model object as a member of a category was documented between 14 and 20 months of age.
