Why loose rings can be tight: The role of learned object knowledge in the development of Korean spatial fit terms

•Whorfian/conceptual tuning theories claim language modulates innate fit concepts.•Korean fit term use is object-specific and not abstract.•Object sensitivity grew over development.•Some Korean adults did not use abstract visual cues to select appropriate fit terms.•Korean fit concepts can be learned like other language-specific object concepts. The Korean fit distinction has been at the center of a debate about whether language can influence spatial concepts. Most research on this issue has largely assumed that the concepts that support Korean fit terms are signaled by innate abstract visual cues (e.g., relative motion of objects), while linguistic studies in Korean suggest that fit terms are object-specific. To examine this issue, Korean-speaking three- to six year-old children and adults were asked to describe spatial scenes, which varied in object type/relations and visual cues for fit. Both groups relied on the prototypical relation between pairs of objects (e.g., rings tend to fit tightly on fingers) in selecting tight-fit terms, and this dependence increased with age. In contrast to Whorfian and Conceptual tuning accounts (Bowerman & Choi, 2003; Hespos & Spelke, 2004), these results suggest that Korean fit concepts are not entirely innate or abstract.