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- Title
Children's Pragmatic Inferences as a Route for Learning About the World.
- Authors
Horowitz, Alexandra C.; Frank, Michael C.
- Abstract
This study investigated whether children can infer category properties based on how a speaker describes an individual (e.g., saying something is a "small zib" implies that zibs are generally bigger than this one). Three- to 5-year-olds (N = 264) from a university preschool and a children's museum were tested on their ability to make this sort of contrast inference. Children made some inferences from adjective choice alone (Experiment 1); performance increased as more cues to contrast were added (Experiments 2 and 3). Control studies show that these findings are not due to the particular properties used or the structure of these tasks (Experiments 4 and 5). These findings suggest that sensitivity to speakers' production choices may help children learn about the world.
- Subjects
CHILD research; INFERENCE (Logic); REASONING; LEARNING; COMPREHENSION; COMPARATIVE studies; CONCEPTS; LANGUAGE &; languages; RESEARCH methodology; MEDICAL cooperation; RESEARCH; THOUGHT &; thinking; EVALUATION research
- Publication
Child Development, 2016, Vol 87, Issue 3, p807
- ISSN
0009-3920
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1111/cdev.12527