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Children's Pragmatic Inferences as a Route for Learning About the World
Author(s) -
Horowitz Alexandra C.,
Frank Michael C.
Publication year - 2016
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.12527
Subject(s) - psychology , adjective , contrast (vision) , inference , sort , cognitive psychology , linguistics , developmental psychology , noun , artificial intelligence , computer science , philosophy , information retrieval
This study investigated whether children can infer category properties based on how a speaker describes an individual (e.g., saying something is a “small zib” implies that zibs are generally bigger than this one). Three‐ to 5‐year‐olds ( N = 264) from a university preschool and a children's museum were tested on their ability to make this sort of contrast inference. Children made some inferences from adjective choice alone (Experiment 1); performance increased as more cues to contrast were added (Experiments 2 and 3). Control studies show that these findings are not due to the particular properties used or the structure of these tasks (Experiments 4 and 5). These findings suggest that sensitivity to speakers' production choices may help children learn about the world.