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The Nominal Passover Effect Depends on Addressee Age, Speaker Goal, and Object Similarity
Author(s) -
Merriman William E.,
Evey Julie A.
Publication year - 2005
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.1467-8624.2005.00843.x-i1
Subject(s) - object (grammar) , psychology , similarity (geometry) , individuation , cognitive psychology , communication , linguistics , artificial intelligence , computer science , psychoanalysis , philosophy , image (mathematics)
If after teaching a label for 1 object, a speaker does not name a nearby object, 3‐year‐olds tend to reject the label for the nearby object (W.E. Merriman, J.M. Marazita, L.H. Jarvis, J.A. Evey‐Burkey, and M. Biggins, 1995a). In Studies 1 (5‐year‐olds) and 3 (3‐year‐olds), this effect depended on object similarity. In Study 2, when a speaker used a label without teaching it, 5‐year‐olds showed no passover effect. 3‐year‐olds showed none for inanimate objects, but one for animate objects. When extraneous factors that may have promoted animate object individuation were eliminated (Study 3), 3‐year‐olds showed the effect when a label was taught, but not when it was merely used. Children honor rational restrictions on when the unacceptability of a name can be inferred from its nonoccurrence.