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Speaker reliability in preschoolers' inferences about the meanings of novel words*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2011

DAVID M. SOBEL ,
JULIE SEDIVY ,
DAVID W. BUCHANAN  and
RACHEL HENNESSY
DAVID M. SOBEL*
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University
JULIE SEDIVY
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychology and Linguistics, University of Calgary
DAVID W. BUCHANAN
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University
RACHEL HENNESSY
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University
*
Address for correspondence: D. Sobel, CLPS Department, Box 1821, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912. tel: (401)-863-3038; fax: (401)-863-2255. e-mail: Dave_Sobel@brown.edu
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Abstract

Preschoolers participated in a modified version of the disambiguation task, designed to test whether the pragmatic environment generated by a reliable or unreliable speaker affected how children interpreted novel labels. Two objects were visible to children, while a third was only visible to the speaker (a fact known by the child). Manipulating whether a novel object was visible to both interlocutors or hidden from the child tested the child's understanding of pragmatic expectations of interlocutor competence. When interacting with a speaker with a history of accurately labeling familiar objects, children responded appropriately in both cases. Whn interacting with a speaker who previously generated inaccurate labels for familiar objects, children's behavior and eye-movements reflected their belief that the speaker was not a competent communicator. These data support the hypothesis that children consider the pragmatic environment constructed by an interlocutor when that speaker asks them to make a lexical inference.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 90 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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Footnotes

[*]

This research was supported by NSF (DLS-0518161 to DMS and BCS-0744898 to JS and DMS). We would like to thank all of the parents and children who participated in this research as well as Emily Blumenthal, Jon Cohen, Claire Cook, Karina Ikesoe, Rachel Shelley-Abrahamson, Kristen Swan, Cesalie Stepney, Lea Travers and Ana Van Gulick for help with data collection and participant recruitment. Gil Diesendruck and Vikram Jaswal provided helpful conversations towards the construction of this manuscript.

References

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