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Children's difficulties with partial representations in ambiguous messages and referentially opaque contexts
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Robinson, Elizabeth J. Z. Apperly, Ian A. |
| Copyright Year | 2001 |
| Abstract | Abstract In two experiments, 4–6-year-olds' performance in a communication game with ambiguous messages was compared with their handling of a puppet character's partial knowledge. In the partial knowledge tasks the puppet was partially informed about an object in a box: e.g., he knew it was a ball but not that it was a present. Children, who acknowledged that he did not know the ball was a present, often judged incorrectly that he knew there was a present in the box. That is, they neglected to treat the referring expression as substitution-sensitive. In the communication game, matching questions about what the speaker said showed the same pattern of errors. Correct evaluation of message ambiguity was significantly related to the more difficult, substitution-sensitive questions both about what was said and about what the puppet knew. Failure to identify ambiguity in utterances did not arise from general confusion of words spoken with intended meaning, since children correctly rejected some true descriptions of the intended referent as having been said. Rather, children failed to hold partial representations under the particular terms of their description. |
| Starting Page | 595 |
| Ending Page | 615 |
| Page Count | 21 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1016/S0885-2014(00)00035-6 |
| Volume Number | 16 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.ianapperly.eclipse.co.uk/Robinson%20&%20Apperly%202001.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2014%2800%2900035-6 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
