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Children's Use of Context in Interpreting “Big” and “Little”
Author(s) -
Ebeling Karen S.,
Gelman Susan A.
Publication year - 1994
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/j.1467-8624.1994.tb00811.x
Subject(s) - normative , psychology , context (archaeology) , perception , object (grammar) , representation (politics) , cognitive psychology , mental representation , context effect , developmental psychology , social psychology , cognition , computer science , artificial intelligence , epistemology , linguistics , neuroscience , paleontology , philosophy , politics , political science , word (group theory) , law , biology
In order to use the words “big” and “little” appropriately, adults use 3 kinds of contexts: normative (the size of the object is compared to a stored mental representation), perceptual (the object is compared to another physically present object of the same kind), and functional (the object is judged with regard to its intended use). In 3 experiments, we examined how flexibly children switch from one context to another. 2–4‐year‐olds judged a series of everyday objects as “big” or “little.” To answer correctly, children had to judge each object twice, once in a normative context and once in a perceptual or functional context. Results showed that switching from one context to another was not inherently difficult, even for 2‐year‐olds. However, the direction of switch was important: children throughout the age range tested switched easily from a normative context but made errors when asked to switch to a normative context. We suggest that the normative context differs from the perceptual and functional contexts in that it is unmarked, and that unmarked contexts are accessible only when no other context has been recently experienced. When context is marked more explicitly, children shift flexibly among different meanings.