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Abstract：
Combinatorial thought, or the ability to combine a finite set of concepts into a myriad of complex ideas and knowledge structures, is the key to the productivity of the human mind and underlies communication, science, technology, and art. Despite the importance of combinatorial thought for human cognition and culture, its developmental origins remain unknown. To address this, we tested whether 12-mo-old infants (N = 60), who cannot yet speak and only understand a handful of words, can combine quantity and kind concepts activated by verbal input. We proceeded in two steps: first, we taught infants two novel labels denoting quantity (e.g., \"mize\" for 1 item; \"padu\" for 2 items, Experiment 1). Then, we assessed whether they could combine quantity and kind concepts upon hearing complex expressions comprising their labels (e.g., \"padu duck\", Experiments 2-3). At test, infants viewed four different sets of objects (e.g., 1 duck, 2 ducks, 1 ball, 2 balls) while being presented with the target phrase (e.g., \"padu duck\") naming one of them (e.g., 2 ducks). They successfully retrieved and combined on-line the labeled concepts, as evidenced by increased looking to the named sets but not to distractor sets. Our results suggest that combinatorial processes for building complex representations are available by the end of the first year of life. The infant mind seems geared to integrate concepts in novel productive ways. This ability may be a precondition for deciphering the ambient language(s) and building abstract models of experience that enable fast and flexible learning.
摘要：
组合思想,或将有限的概念集组合成无数复杂的思想和知识结构的能力，是人类思维生产力的关键，是沟通的基础，科学,技术,和艺术。尽管组合思维对人类认知和文化的重要性，它的发展起源仍然未知。为了解决这个问题，我们测试了12个月大的婴儿(N=60)他们还不能说话，只能听懂几句话，可以结合由口头输入激活的数量和种类概念。我们分两步进行:第一,我们教婴儿两个表示数量的新标签(例如，1项\"mize\";2项\"padu\",实验1)。然后，我们评估了他们是否可以在听到包含其标签的复杂表达式时结合数量和种类概念(例如，“帕杜鸭子”，实验2-3)。在测试中，婴儿查看了四组不同的对象(例如，1只鸭子,2只鸭子,1个球,2个球)，同时呈现目标短语(例如，\“paduduck\”)命名其中一个(例如，2只鸭子）。他们成功地在线检索和组合了标记的概念，这一点得到了证明，增加了对命名集的关注，而不是对干扰集的关注。我们的结果表明，在生命的第一年结束时，可以使用组合过程来构建复杂的表示形式。婴儿的思想似乎旨在以新颖的生产性方式整合概念。这种能力可以是破译(一种或多种)环境语言和构建能够实现快速和灵活学习的抽象经验模型的先决条件。
