British Journal of Developmental Psychology· 2026Q1
Relating object memory to word learning: Data from a new test of toddlers' object recognition
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- 2026year
Short summary
Toddlers' memory for familiar object pairs, but not novel ones, correlated with their vocabulary percentile scores (n=44).
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Memory for familiar object pairs, but not novel pairs, was linked to toddlers' vocabulary percentile scores.
- Performance in an object recognition task depended on whether objects belonged to known categories and the child's vocabulary percentile.
- Age and total productive vocabulary alone did not predict memory performance.
- The study tested 44 toddlers aged 14-24 months using a preferential-looking object recognition task.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Abstract Learning names for concrete objects, which dominate early vocabularies, relies on visual processes such as object recognition and memory for previously named objects. We examined the relation between memory for pairs of familiar and novel objects and early vocabulary development. We tested 52 14‐ to 24‐month‐olds (26 girls) in a preferential‐looking object recognition task. Analysis of data from 44 toddlers suggested memory performance was based on whether the stimuli were from categories known to children in this age range and a vocabulary percentile score based on age and gender, rather than just age or total productive vocabulary. We found some evidence that toddlers with higher vocabulary percentile scores remembered familiar but not novel object pairs. We discuss possible reasons for differences in memory for familiar and novel objects, limitations of our task and how our findings fit with proposals on the relations between memory, visual processing and variability in vocabulary development. image
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Developmental and Educational PsychologyPsychology