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Children's comprehension of deceptive points
Author(s) -
Couillard Nicole L.,
Woodward Amanda L.
Publication year - 1999
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 - 10.1348/026151099165447
Subject(s) - psychology , comprehension , gesture , point (geometry) , container (type theory) , value (mathematics) , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , nonverbal communication , linguistics , computer science , mechanical engineering , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , machine learning , engineering
This study investigated children's ability to comprehend deceptive point gestures. Thirty 3‐4 1/2‐year‐olds participated in a game in which a sticker was hidden under one of two containers. A confederate provided misleading clues about the location of the sticker by either pointing to or placing a marker on the container without the sticker. Across ages, children performed less well when the clue was the point than when it was the marker. They were able to use the misleading marker cue, learning to look under the unmarked container. However, they could not do this for the misleading point. These results concur with those from studies of point production (Carlson, Moses & Hix, 1998) in indicating that deceptive pointing may be a misleading measure of children's abilities. At a very early age children learn the communicative value of the point gesture. This knowledge may become so entrenched that children have difficulty interpreting points in a novel manner.