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Disfluencies signal reference to novel objects for adults but not children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2017

Sarah J. OWENS ,
Justine M. THACKER  and
Susan A. GRAHAM
Sarah J. OWENS
Affiliation:
University of Calgary, Canada
Justine M. THACKER
Affiliation:
University of Calgary, Canada
Susan A. GRAHAM*
Affiliation:
University of Calgary, Canada
*
Address for correspondence: S. Graham, Dept. of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary AB, T2N 1N4, Canada; e-mail: susan.graham@ucalgary.ca
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Abstract

Speech disfluencies can guide the ways in which listeners interpret spoken language. Here, we examined whether three-year-olds, five-year-olds, and adults use filled pauses to anticipate that a speaker is likely to refer to a novel object. Across three experiments, participants were presented with pairs of novel and familiar objects and heard a speaker refer to one of the objects using a fluent (“Look at the ball/lep!”) or disfluent (“Look at thee uh ball/lep!”) expression. The salience of the speaker's unfamiliarity with the novel referents, and the way in which the speaker referred to the novel referents (i.e., a noun vs. a description) varied across experiments. Three- and five-year-olds successfully identified familiar and novel targets, but only adults’ looking patterns reflected increased looks to novel objects in the presence of a disfluency. Together, these findings demonstrate that adults, but not young children, use filled pauses to anticipate reference to novel objects.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , May 2018 , pp. 581 - 609
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

This work was supported by funds from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Canada Research Chairs program, and the University of Calgary, and by an operating grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) awarded to Susan Graham. Sarah Owens was supported by a graduate fellowship from SSHRC, and funding from Alberta Innovates Health Solutions. Justine Thacker was supported by a graduate fellowship from SSHRC. We thank Melanie Khu, Vanessa Schell, Nicole Henezi, and Charlene Parker for their assistance with this research. Some of the data presented were included in Sarah Owens’ dissertation, submitted to the University of Calgary.

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