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Children's judgements of whether slightly and grossly discrepant objects were intended by a speaker
Author(s) -
Mitchell Peter,
Russell James
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-835x.1991.tb00876.x
Subject(s) - psychology , object (grammar) , situational ethics , developmental psychology , social psychology , linguistics , philosophy
Five‐ and 9‐year‐olds heard stories in which a speaker described an object s***he wanted a listener to fetch. The listener found an object which was either slightly or grossly discrepant in relation to the description. Children of both ages sometimes judged positively that the discrepant object was the one the speaker intended, but only 9‐year‐olds judged positively more frequently when the discrepancy was small rather than gross. Therefore, children in both age groups seemed to acknowledge misdescription, but only older children utilized size of discrepancy as a clue to misdescription. We discuss the possibility that although 5‐year‐olds know about misdescription, unlike 9‐year‐olds they are weak at utilizing situational clues in judging whether misdescription has or has not occurred.