title: Children's use of gesture in ambiguous pronoun interpretation.
abstract: This study explores whether children can use gesture to inform their interpretation of ambiguous pronouns. Specifically, we ask whether four- to eight-year-old English-speaking children are sensitive to information contained in co-referential localizing gestures in video narrations. The data show that the older (7-8 years of age) but not younger (4-5 years) children integrate co-referential gestures into their interpretation of pronouns. This is the same age at which they show sensitivity to order-of-mention, the only other cue available in the stimuli. Interestingly, when children show sensitivity to the gestures, they are quite similar to adults, in that gestures consistent with order-of-mention increase first-mentioned responses as compared to stimuli with no gestures, but only slightly, while gestures inconsistent with order-of-mention have a larger effect on interpretation, decreasing first-mentioned responses and increasing second-mentioned responses.
authors.affiliation: University of Maryland,College Park.
authors.forename: Whitney
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Goodrich Smith
authors.affiliation: University of British Columbia.
authors.forename: Carla L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Hudson Kam
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D032882:Comprehension; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005868:Gestures; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male