title: Critical thinking about fables: examining language production and comprehension in adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study was designed primarily to determine if a critical-thinking task involving fables would elicit greater syntactic complexity than a conversational task in adolescents. Another purpose was to determine how well adolescents understand critical-thinking questions about fables.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty adolescents (N=20 boys and 20 girls; mean age=14 years) with typical language development answered critical-thinking questions about the deeper meanings of fables. They also participated in a standard conversational task. The syntactic complexity of their responses during the speaking tasks was analyzed for mean length of communication unit (MLCU) and clausal density (CD).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both measures of syntactic complexity, MLCU and CD, were substantially greater during the critical-thinking task compared with the conversational task. It was also found that the adolescents understood the questions quite well, earning a mean accuracy score of 80%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The critical-thinking task has potential for use as a new type of language-sampling tool to examine language production and comprehension in adolescents.
authors.forename: Marilyn A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Nippold
authors.forename: Megan W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Frantz-Kaspar
authors.forename: Paige M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Cramond
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kirk
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hayward-Mayhew
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: MacKinnon
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003142:Communication; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D007803:Language Arts; D007804:Language Development; D008091:Literature; D008297:Male; D012660:Semantics; D013850:Thinking