Yes / Young children often struggle with referential communications because they fail to
compare all valid referents. In two studies, we investigated this comparison process. In
Study 1, 4- to 7-year-olds (N=114) were asked to categorize pairs of objects according
to their similarities or differences, and then identified a unique quality of one of the
objects by responding to a referential question. Children found it easier to judge the
differences between objects than similarities. Correct judgments of differences
predicted accurate identifications. In Study 2, 4- to 5-year-olds (N=36) again
categorized according to similarities or differences, but this time were asked for verbal
explanations of their decisions. Recognition of differences was easier than recognition
of similarities. Explanations of errors were either: a) ambiguous; b) color error: c)
thematic (creative imaginative explanations). Children offered thematic explanations
when they failed to recognize similarities between objects, but not for errors of
difference.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/18989 |
| Date | 06 December 2021 |
| Creators | Waters, Gill M., Dunning, P.L., Kapsokavadi, M.M., Morris, S.L., Pepper, L.B. |
| Publisher | Springer |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article, Published version |
| Rights | (c) 2021 The Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed under the Creative Commons CC-BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), CC-BY |
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