Perceptual discriminability and communication performance in preschool children.
The ability of preschool children to discriminate perceptually among novel forms frequently employed in referential communication tasks is examined. Results suggest that preschool children who are able to discriminate among the forms nevertheless perform poorly on a referential communication task involving these same forms. Asking children to provide names for the forms enhanced their discrimination performance but not their communication performance.
D001076:Aptitude; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male