Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > Fourteen-Month-Old Infants Track the Language C...

Research

Electronic data

Links

Text available via DOI:

Keywords

View graph of relations

Fourteen-Month-Old Infants Track the Language Comprehension of Communicative Partners

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Published

Standard

Fourteen-Month-Old Infants Track the Language Comprehension of Communicative Partners. / Forgács, Bálint; Parise, Eugenio; Csibra, Gergely et al.
In: Developmental Science, Vol. 22, No. 2, e12751, 01.03.2019.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Harvard

Forgács, B, Parise, E, Csibra, G, Gergely, G, Jacquey, L & Gervain, J 2019, 'Fourteen-Month-Old Infants Track the Language Comprehension of Communicative Partners', Developmental Science, vol. 22, no. 2, e12751. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12751

APA

Forgács, B., Parise, E., Csibra, G., Gergely, G., Jacquey, L., & Gervain, J. (2019). Fourteen-Month-Old Infants Track the Language Comprehension of Communicative Partners. Developmental Science, 22(2), Article e12751. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12751

Vancouver

Forgács B, Parise E, Csibra G, Gergely G, Jacquey L, Gervain J. Fourteen-Month-Old Infants Track the Language Comprehension of Communicative Partners. Developmental Science. 2019 Mar 1;22(2):e12751. Epub 2018 Sept 5. doi: 10.1111/desc.12751

Author

Forgács, Bálint ; Parise, Eugenio ; Csibra, Gergely et al. / Fourteen-Month-Old Infants Track the Language Comprehension of Communicative Partners. In: Developmental Science. 2019 ; Vol. 22, No. 2.

Bibtex

@article{ee023a37ac4f447aacb52577cf5a4eb3,
title = "Fourteen-Month-Old Infants Track the Language Comprehension of Communicative Partners",
abstract = "Infants employ sophisticated mechanisms to acquire their first language, including some that rely on taking the perspective of adults as speakers or listeners. When do infants first show awareness of what other people understand? We tested 14-month-old infants in two experiments measuring event-related potentials. In Experiment 1, we established that infants produce the N400 effect, a brain signature of semantic violations, in a live object naming paradigm in the presence of an adult observer. In Experiment 2, we induced false beliefs about the labelled objects in the adult observer to test whether infants keep track of the other person{\textquoteright}s comprehension. The results revealed that infants reacted to the semantic incongruity heard by the other as if they encountered it themselves: they exhibited an N400-like response, even though labels were congruous from their perspective. This finding demonstrates that infants track the linguistic understanding of social partners.",
keywords = "language acquisition, Theory-of-Mind, social cognition, N400, false belief, experimental pragmatics",
author = "B{\'a}lint Forg{\'a}cs and Eugenio Parise and Gergely Csibra and Gy{\"o}rgy Gergely and Lisa Jacquey and Judit Gervain",
year = "2019",
month = mar,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1111/desc.12751",
language = "English",
volume = "22",
journal = "Developmental Science",
issn = "1363-755X",
publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",
number = "2",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Fourteen-Month-Old Infants Track the Language Comprehension of Communicative Partners

AU - Forgács, Bálint

AU - Parise, Eugenio

AU - Csibra, Gergely

AU - Gergely, György

AU - Jacquey, Lisa

AU - Gervain, Judit

PY - 2019/3/1

Y1 - 2019/3/1

N2 - Infants employ sophisticated mechanisms to acquire their first language, including some that rely on taking the perspective of adults as speakers or listeners. When do infants first show awareness of what other people understand? We tested 14-month-old infants in two experiments measuring event-related potentials. In Experiment 1, we established that infants produce the N400 effect, a brain signature of semantic violations, in a live object naming paradigm in the presence of an adult observer. In Experiment 2, we induced false beliefs about the labelled objects in the adult observer to test whether infants keep track of the other person’s comprehension. The results revealed that infants reacted to the semantic incongruity heard by the other as if they encountered it themselves: they exhibited an N400-like response, even though labels were congruous from their perspective. This finding demonstrates that infants track the linguistic understanding of social partners.

AB - Infants employ sophisticated mechanisms to acquire their first language, including some that rely on taking the perspective of adults as speakers or listeners. When do infants first show awareness of what other people understand? We tested 14-month-old infants in two experiments measuring event-related potentials. In Experiment 1, we established that infants produce the N400 effect, a brain signature of semantic violations, in a live object naming paradigm in the presence of an adult observer. In Experiment 2, we induced false beliefs about the labelled objects in the adult observer to test whether infants keep track of the other person’s comprehension. The results revealed that infants reacted to the semantic incongruity heard by the other as if they encountered it themselves: they exhibited an N400-like response, even though labels were congruous from their perspective. This finding demonstrates that infants track the linguistic understanding of social partners.

KW - language acquisition

KW - Theory-of-Mind

KW - social cognition

KW - N400

KW - false belief

KW - experimental pragmatics

U2 - 10.1111/desc.12751

DO - 10.1111/desc.12751

M3 - Journal article

VL - 22

JO - Developmental Science

JF - Developmental Science

SN - 1363-755X

IS - 2

M1 - e12751

ER -