Labelling and categorization: Evidence from Experimental Studies on Infants

Abstract

In recent decades, cognitive psychology has focused on the impacts of linguistic labels on the categorization processes in infants. In this article, the results of two experimental studies, Plunkett et al. and Althaus and Westermann, are critically analyzed in the context of the experimental literature on this topic. From the analysis, it is possible to identify two effects of language labels on categorization: a “grouping effect” and a “segregation effect”. These effects are interpreted within a broader debate on language and thought in which Linguistic Relativity and the debate on the Cognitive Penetrability of Perception are interconnected. Within this framework comes the Language Feedback Hypothesis as a theory that could account for the effects observed experimentally both on infants and adults.