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Preschoolers' word mapping: The interplay between labelling context and specificity of speaker information*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2008

ELIZABETH S. NILSEN ,
SUSAN A. GRAHAM  and
TAMARA PETTIGREW
ELIZABETH S. NILSEN
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo
SUSAN A. GRAHAM*
Affiliation:
University of Calgary
TAMARA PETTIGREW
Affiliation:
Concordia University
*
Address for correspondence: Susan Graham, Dept. of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4Canada. e-mail: susan.graham@ucalgary.ca
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Abstract

We assessed the effect of specificity of speaker information about an object on three-year-olds' word mappings. When children heard a novel label followed by specific information about an object at exposure, children subsequently mapped the label to that object at test. When children heard only specific information about an object at exposure, they inferred that the label applied to a different object at test. Finally, non-specific information did not assist children in mapping a word to an object. Thus, children use speaker information as a word-mapping cue but this information is interpreted differently depending on how the discourse is initiated.

Type
Brief Research Report
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , June 2009 , pp. 673 - 684
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

[*]

This research was supported by an operating grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and funding from the Canada Research Chairs program awarded to SG. TP was supported by a summer studentship from AHFMR. We thank the parents and children who participated in the studies, and Carlene Adamache for her assistance with this research. Data from these experiments were presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Brighton, UK.

References

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