Four- and six-year-olds use pragmatic competence to guide word learning.
The present study investigates whether four- and six-year-old children use pragmatic competence as a criterion for learning from someone else. Specifically, we ask whether children use others' adherence to Gricean maxims to determine whether they will offer valid labels for novel objects. Six-year-olds recognized adherence to the maxims of quality and relation and subsequently trusted the labels provided by a maxim adherer. Four-year-olds displayed this pattern when judging adherence to quality but not relation. A linear regression revealed that children's ability to identify maxim adherers predicted their ability to choose the correct object during word-learning trials. This research demonstrates that children use others' pragmatic history when judging the reliability of the information they offer.
Department of Psychology and Human Development, 0552 GPC, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203-5721, USA. mvazquez@devpsy.com
Maria D
MD
Vázquez
Sarah S
SS
Delisle
Megan M
MM
Saylor
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D012660:Semantics; D056345:Theory of Mind; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014706:Verbal Learning