Naming practices and the acquisition of key biological concepts: evidence from English and Indonesian

Psychological Science
Florencia K AnggoroDouglas L Medin

Abstract

Children's acquisition of fundamental biological concepts (living thing, animal, plant) is shaped by the way these concepts are named. In English, but not Indonesian, the name "animal" is polysemous: One sense includes all animate objects, and the other excludes humans. Because names highlight object categories, if the same name ("animal") points to two different, hierarchically related biological concepts, children should have difficulty settling on the scope of that term and its close neighbors (e.g., "alive"). Experiments with 4- to 9-year-old English- and Indonesian-speaking children revealed that "alive" poses unique interpretive challenges, especially for English-speaking children. When asked to identify entities that are "alive," older Indonesian-speaking children selected both plants and animals, but their English-speaking counterparts tended to exclude plants, which suggests that they may have misaligned "alive" with one of the "animal" senses. This work underscores the importance of considering language and cultural factors in studying the acquisition of fundamental concepts about the biological world.

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Citations

Oct 14, 2011·Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science·Sara DellantonioLuigi Pastore
May 19, 2010·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Patricia HerrmannDouglas L Medin
Jan 1, 2008·Journal of Cognition and Development : Official Journal of the Cognitive Development Society·Erin M LeddonDouglas L Medin
Apr 29, 2009·Psychological Science·Robert F Goldberg, Sharon L Thompson-Schill
Sep 29, 2011·Cognition·Patricia A HerrmannSandra R Waxman
Jan 1, 2011·Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Cognitive Science·Susan A Gelman, Meredith Meyer
Aug 19, 2011·The British Journal of Developmental Psychology·Erin M LeddonDouglas L Medin
Dec 20, 2016·Child Development·Tessa Margett-JordanDavid C Witherington
May 20, 2014·Perspectives on Psychological Science : a Journal of the Association for Psychological Science·Adam WaytzNicholas Epley
Nov 11, 2016·Journal of Child Language·Brock Ferguson, Sandra Waxman
Jun 30, 2021·Infant Behavior & Development·Valentina FantasiaAnnie E Wertz

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