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Three‐ to Four‐Year‐Olds' Recognition That Symbols Have a Stable Meaning: Pictures Are Understood Before Written Words
Author(s) -
Apperly Ian. A.,
Williams Emily,
Williams Joelle
Publication year - 2004
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.1467-8624.2004.00754.x
Subject(s) - symbol (formal) , psychology , meaning (existential) , object (grammar) , identity (music) , representation (politics) , linguistics , communication , cognitive psychology , aesthetics , art , philosophy , politics , political science , law , psychotherapist
In 4 experiments 120 three‐ to four‐year‐old nonreaders were asked the identity of a symbolic representation as it appeared with different objects. Consistent with Bialystok (2000), many children judged the identity of written words to vary according to the object with which they appeared but few made such errors with recognizable pictures. Children also made few errors when the symbols were unrecognizable pictures. In Experiments 2 to 4 this pattern of responses was preserved in conditions that made it unlikely or impossible for children to answer correctly by taking the symbol to refer to one of the objects with which it appeared. Instead, correct answers required children to appreciate that the symbol had a generic, abstract meaning.