Lexical diversity in listeners' judgments of children.
This study explored the influence of children's lexical diversity during conversation on the way the children were evaluated by adults. Four adults listened to 93 2-min, samples of children, aged 36 to 78 months, conversing with an adult. They rated each child on 10 7-point bipolar adjective scales. Analysis indicated that children who conversed with low lexical diversity were perceived as less appealing, mature, and talkative than those who conversed with high diversity.
Burroughs
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Department of Communication Disorders, Bowling Green State University, OH 43403.
D001288:Attention; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D013067:Speech Perception; D014825:Vocabulary