The influence of sampling and comparison processes on the development of communication effectiveness

Children's communication performance improves with age, which could result from increases in children's vocabularies, changes in their strategies of selecting messages from their vocabularies, or both. Three experiments were conducted to evaluate these explanations. Two types of communication tasks were employed. One task required that speakers have adequate vocabulary, while the other task had the additional requirement that speakers select their messages based on comparison activity. Results indicated that second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade children were equally effective communicators on the former task and that younger children were poorer communicators on the latter task. These data suggest that younger children have inadequate comparison strategies.

Duke Scholars

Author Steven R. Asher Psychology & Neuroscience