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Overusing the pacifier during infancy sets a footprint on abstract words processing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2020

Laura BARCA ,
Claudia MAZZUCA  and
Anna M. BORGHI
Laura BARCA*
Affiliation:
Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, CNR, Rome, Italy
Claudia MAZZUCA
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of York, UK
Anna M. BORGHI
Affiliation:
Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, CNR, Rome, Italy Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, La Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
*
*Corresponding author: Laura Barca, ISTC-CNR, Via San Martino della Battaglia 44, 00141Rome, Italy E-mail: laura.barca@istc.cnr.it
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Abstract

Perturbations to the speech articulators induced by frequently using an interfering object during infancy (i.e., pacifier) might shape children's language experience and the building of conceptual representations. Seventy-one typically developing third graders performed a semantic categorization task with abstract, concrete and emotional words. Children who used the pacifier for a more extended period were slower than the others. Moreover, overusing the pacifier increased response time of abstract words, whereas emotional and (above all) concrete words were less affected. Results support the view that abstract words are grounded both in perception-action and in linguistic experience.

Keywords

pacifierabstract conceptsphono-articulatory simulationsemantic categorizationembodied cognition
Type
Brief Research Reports
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 47 , Issue 5 , September 2020 , pp. 1084 - 1099
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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