Looks Aren't Everything: 24-Month-Olds' Willingness to Accept Unexpected Labels

Abstract

A label can efficiently convey nonobvious information about category membership, but this information can sometimes conflict with one's own expectations. Two studies explored whether 24-month-olds (N = 56) would be willing to accept a category label indicating that an animal (Study 1) or artifact (Study 2) that looked like a member of one familiar category was actually a member of a different familiar category. Results showed that children were receptive to these unexpected labels and used them as the basis for inference. These findings indicate that linguistic information can lead even toddlers to “disbelieve their eyes.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Generous support for this research was provided by the University of Virginia.

Portions of this work were presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, April, 2002, in Toronto, and the Cognitive Science Society Meeting, August, 2002, in Fairfax, VA.

We would like to thank the children and parents who participated. We also thank Keelah Andrews, Olivia Lima, Lina Liu, Lauren Malone, Brittany McLaughlin, Yujin Moon, and Leslie Neely for assistance in data collection and coding.