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How Symbolic Experience Shapes Children's Symbolic Flexibility
Author(s) -
Thom Emily E.,
Sandhofer Catherine M.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.12147
Subject(s) - psychology , flexibility (engineering) , preference , the symbolic , consistency (knowledge bases) , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , social psychology , artificial intelligence , computer science , mathematics , statistics , psychoanalysis
The current experiments asked whether children with dual‐symbolic experience (e.g., unimodal bilingual and bimodal) develop a preference for words like monolingual children (Namy & Waxman, 1998). In Experiment 1, ninety‐five 18‐ and 24‐month‐olds, with monolingual, unimodal bilingual, or bimodal symbolic experience, were tested in their willingness to treat digitized sounds as referents. In Experiment 2, forty‐seven 24‐month‐olds, with the same types of symbolic experience, were tested in their willingness to treat novel words as referents. Monolingual children performed in ways indicative of a growing preference for words, whereas children with dual‐symbolic experience performed in ways indicative of consistency in symbolic flexibility over time. Results suggest that the developmental trajectory of children's symbolic flexibility might depend on their symbolic experience.