How toddlers and preschoolers learn to uniquely identify referents for others: a training study.
Published
Journal Article
This training study investigates how children learn to refer to things unambiguously. Two hundred twenty-four children aged 2.6, 3.6, and 4.6 years were pre- and posttested for their ability to request stickers from a dense array. Between test sessions, children were assigned to a training condition in which they (a) asked for stickers from an adult, (b) responded to an adult's requests for stickers, (c) observed 1 adult ask another for stickers, or (d) heard model descriptions of stickers. All conditions yielded improvements in referring strategies, with condition (a) being most effective. Four-year-olds additionally demonstrated learning effects in a transfer task. These results suggest that young children's communication skills develop best in response to feedback about their own attempts at reference.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Matthews, D; Lieven, E; Tomasello, M
Published Date
- November 2007
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 78 / 6
Start / End Page
- 1744 - 1759
PubMed ID
- 17988318
Pubmed Central ID
- 17988318
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1467-8624
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0009-3920
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01098.x
Language
- eng