Objects can be identified by using words that denote members of a category or by using individual names. Whether individually naming objects influences infants’ ability to remember them is unclear.

The researchers analyzed how object naming influences memory in 77 infants who were between 11.5 and 12.5 months of age and recruited from the Greater Chicago area.

During a training phase, infants saw four images of different stuffed animals and were randomly assigned to hear either the same name for all animals or different names for each animal.

During the test trials, infants viewed each training animal paired with a new animal they had not seen, presented in silence. The authors found that if infants recognized the previously seen training animal, they preferred to look at the new animal. Infants who heard different names for each animal successfully recognized most of the training animals, whereas infants who heard the same name for all animals had difficulty recognizing the training animals.

The findings suggest that hearing unique names for objects leads infants to remember individual differences among the objects, according to the authors. 

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/08/12/2006608117

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