title: The role of representational strength in verbal updating: evidence from 19- and 24-month-olds.
abstract: The current research investigated the role of object familiarity in children's ability to update the representation of an absent object via language. In Study 1, the degree of object familiarity was manipulated by the amount of time children were exposed to an object. The results showed that when 19- and 24-month-olds were minimally exposed to the object, only the 24-month-olds were able to incorporate newly heard information about it by selecting the new version of the object. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrated that the younger children's failure to update is due to their failure to activate an object's weak representation in working memory. When the object's weak representation was reactivated (by seeing a depiction of the object) prior to the language input, the younger children successfully updated their representation of the object. The findings are discussed in light of the graded representation account.
authors: Uppsala Child and Baby Lab, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, S-751 42 Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address: martyna.galazka@psyk.uu.se.
authors: Martyna A
authors: MA
authors: Galazka
authors: Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5R 2X2, Canada. Electronic address: patricia.ganea@toronto.ca.
authors: Patricia A
authors: PA
authors: Ganea
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D021641:Recognition, Psychology
keywords: Absent referent; Language; Object familiarity; Representation; Representational strength; Updating