Does young children’s interest in categories influence their familiar word-object recognition?

Abstract

Already at six months, children recognize many familiar objects when hearing the label. Nonetheless, recognition in young children is influenced by other factors such as category size, frequency, and salience. Given that category size and interests of a child influence word-object association learning, we hypothesized that a child’s interest might also modulate word-object recognition. 24- to 38-month-old children’s familiar word-object recognition was measured in a preferential looking paradigm, while their target looking was recorded. Category interest was measured via pupillary arousal and parent questionnaires. Additionally, category size estimates were obtained from the parents. Children looked longer and faster to the correct target upon hearing its label. The child’s (word) knowledge of and interest in the category were weakly related to children’s word-object recognition. Thus, by the age of 24 to 38 months, children’s word-object recognition of well-known familiar category members is accurate and efficient with little influence of other factors.