Beyond early linguistic competence : development of children's ability to interpret adjectives flexibly
We investigated the circumstances in which 3- to 5-year-old children can and cannot interpret adjectives flexibly. In Experiment 1, children were required to interpret big and little both in reference to a basic level kind (e.g., “This is a big marble”) and in reference to a superordinate kind (e.g....
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/99439 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/24051 |
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| Institution: | Nanyang Technological University |
| Language: | English |
| Summary: | We investigated the circumstances in which 3- to 5-year-old children can and cannot interpret adjectives flexibly. In Experiment 1, children were required to interpret big and little both in reference to a basic level kind (e.g., “This is a big marble”) and in reference to a superordinate kind (e.g., “This is a little toy”). Experiment 2 examined 3-year-olds’ flexible interpretation of big and little with respect to a medium-sized stimulus that was alternately compared with a smaller stimulus and a larger stimulus (e.g., “Which one of these two circles is the big one?”). Even the youngest children switched between interpretations when the switch was accompanied by a change in the stimulus display. When the stimulus display remained constant, however, younger children typically perseverated on a single interpretation. Results replicate evidence of the roots of flexible adjective interpretation but also show protracted development of the ability to coordinate two incompatible interpretations of a single situation. |
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