Tools
Tools
Horst, Jessica S, Samuelson, Larissa K 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9141-3286, Kucker, Sarah C and McMurray, Bob
(2011)
What's new?:Children prefer novelty in referent selection.
Cognition, 118 (2).
pp. 234-244.
ISSN 0010-0277
Abstract
Determining the referent of a novel name is a critical task for young language learners. The majority of studies on children's referent selection focus on manipulating the sources of information (linguistic, contextual and pragmatic) that children can use to solve the referent mapping problem. Here, we take a step back and explore how children's endogenous biases towards novelty and their own familiarity with novel objects influence their performance in such a task. We familiarized 2-year-old children with previously novel objects. Then, on novel name referent selection trials children were asked to select the referent from three novel objects: two previously seen and one completely novel object. Children demonstrated a clear bias to select the most novel object. A second experiment controls for pragmatic responding and replicates this finding. We conclude, therefore, that children's referent selection is biased by previous exposure and children's endogenous bias to novelty.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | preschool child,exploratory behavior,female,humans,language development,linguistics,male |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Cognition, Action and Perception Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Developmental Science |
| Depositing User: | Pure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 13 Nov 2015 14:01 |
| Last Modified: | 21 Oct 2022 02:34 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/55194 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.cognition.2010.10.015 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |