Mandler and McDonough (1993) Familiarized a Group of 9-Month-Olds Either

Essay

Mandler and McDonough (1993) familiarized a group of 9-month-olds either to different toy birds with outstretched wings or toy airplanes. They subsequently gave them a new toy bird and a new toy airplane and measured the infants' examination times to these new toys. Infants who were familiarized to birds examined the airplane longer compared to the new bird, and infants who were familiarized to airplanes examined the bird longer compared to the new airplane. What can we infer from these findings? What does that tell us about infants' perceptual and conceptual categorization abilities? What are possible limitations of this study?