Abstract

GONZALEZ AGUIRRE, Omar Abad; LAGUNA NAVARRO, Isaura  and  ALVA CANTO, Elda Alicia. Generalization of Words in Spanish Speaking Infants: The Shape Bias. Acta de investigación psicol [online]. 2020, vol.10, n.2, pp.5-16.  Epub Mar 05, 2021. ISSN 2007-4719.  https://doi.org/10.22201/fpsi.20074719e.2020.2.340.

Early research has demonstrated that children extend new labels on the basis of shape. Nevertheless, some research done in Spanish language, hasn’t found a shape preference in contrast to color and texture. The purpose of this research was to compare Spanish Speaking 24-month-old infants skills creating new categories based on the shape and the color of the object, using these categories independently as major characteristics. The Preferential Attention Intermodal Paradigm was used. The output showed that infants formed categories based mainly on the object’s shape rather than the color. Although previous studies have not observed a shape bias, this evidence shows that, when the formation of categories is induced, spanish-speaking infants show a preference for defining the shape as the main feature when contrasted with the color. The relationship among this categorization ability and a bias towards the form, seen in other studies, is discussed.

Keywords : Infants; Categorization; Language; Shape-bias; Color.