Two experiments investigated sensory/motor-based functional knowledge of man-made objects: manipulation features associated with the actual usage of objects. In Experiment 1, a series of prime-target pairs was presented auditorily, and participants were asked to make a lexical decision on the target word. Participants made a significantly faster…

The ability of two and three-year-old children to comprehend the prepositions in, on, and under was tested. Results suggest that the young child's comprehension of locative instructions involves an interaction between aspects of the instruction's word meanings, word order, and the child's understanding of the context. (Author/MV)

Examined whether 2-year-olds can learn a novel part name of an unfamiliar object when adult demonstrates action upon object. Asked 24 Japanese 2-year-olds to choose referent for a whole object and part of the object in forced choice tests. Found that young children are able to override whole object assumption when actions of parts of objects are…