Preschoolers modulate contrastive inferences during online language comprehension. 2023

Narae Ju, and Natalie Williams, and Julie Sedivy, and Craig G Chambers, and Susan A Graham
Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

This study examined 4- and 5-year-olds' incremental interpretation of size adjectives, focusing on whether contrastive inferences are modulated by speaker behavior. Children (N = 120, 59 females, mostly White, tested between July, 2018 and August, 2019) encountered either a conventional or unconventional speaker who labeled objects in a correspondingly typical or atypical way. Critical utterances contained size adjectives (e.g., "Look at the big duck"). With conventional speakers, gaze measures indicated that children rapidly used the adjective to differentiate members of a contrasting pair, indicating that even 4-year-olds derive contrastive inferences. With unconventional speakers, contrastive inferences were delayed in processing. The findings demonstrate that preschoolers adjust their use of pragmatic cues when presented with evidence disconfirming their default assumptions about a speaker.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007802 Language A verbal or nonverbal means of communicating ideas or feelings. Dialect,Dialects,Languages
D007804 Language Development The gradual expansion in complexity and meaning of symbols and sounds as perceived and interpreted by the individual through a maturational and learning process. Stages in development include babbling, cooing, word imitation with cognition, and use of short sentences. Language Acquisition,Acquisition, Language,Development, Language
D002648 Child A person 6 to 12 years of age. An individual 2 to 5 years old is CHILD, PRESCHOOL. Children
D002675 Child, Preschool A child between the ages of 2 and 5. Children, Preschool,Preschool Child,Preschool Children
D003463 Cues Signals for an action; that specific portion of a perceptual field or pattern of stimuli to which a subject has learned to respond. Cue
D005260 Female Females
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D032882 Comprehension The act or fact of grasping the meaning, nature, or importance of; understanding. (American Heritage Dictionary, 4th ed) Includes understanding by a patient or research subject of information disclosed orally or in writing. Readability,Understanding

Related Publications

Narae Ju, and Natalie Williams, and Julie Sedivy, and Craig G Chambers, and Susan A Graham
August 2019, Cognitive science,
Narae Ju, and Natalie Williams, and Julie Sedivy, and Craig G Chambers, and Susan A Graham
February 2019, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition,
Narae Ju, and Natalie Williams, and Julie Sedivy, and Craig G Chambers, and Susan A Graham
February 2013, Neuroscience letters,
Narae Ju, and Natalie Williams, and Julie Sedivy, and Craig G Chambers, and Susan A Graham
May 2020, Child development,
Narae Ju, and Natalie Williams, and Julie Sedivy, and Craig G Chambers, and Susan A Graham
January 2023, Journal of cognition,
Narae Ju, and Natalie Williams, and Julie Sedivy, and Craig G Chambers, and Susan A Graham
May 2023, Developmental psychology,
Narae Ju, and Natalie Williams, and Julie Sedivy, and Craig G Chambers, and Susan A Graham
October 2020, Acta psychologica,
Narae Ju, and Natalie Williams, and Julie Sedivy, and Craig G Chambers, and Susan A Graham
January 2024, Journal of cognition,
Narae Ju, and Natalie Williams, and Julie Sedivy, and Craig G Chambers, and Susan A Graham
July 1994, Psychological review,
Narae Ju, and Natalie Williams, and Julie Sedivy, and Craig G Chambers, and Susan A Graham
January 2022, International journal of language & communication disorders,
Copied contents to your clipboard!