title: Speaker reliability in preschoolers' inferences about the meanings of novel words.
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. When 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.
authors: Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA. Dave_Sobel@brown.edu
authors: David M
authors: DM
authors: Sobel
authors: Julie
authors: J
authors: Sedivy
authors: David W
authors: DW
authors: Buchanan
authors: Rachel
authors: R
authors: Hennessy
mesh_terms: D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003210:Concept Formation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011340:Problem Solving; D013065:Speech Intelligibility