Young Children's Coordination of Label Extension Across the Senses

Although young children usually avoid extending two labels to the same object, they tend not to do so across the senses (Scofield, Hernandez-Reif, & Keith, 2009). In two experiments, 3- and 4-year-olds learned a label for a visual training object, then examined two hidden objects manually. One was the training object while the other was novel. On the critical trials, children were asked to choose the hidden object that was the referent of a novel label. In Experiment 1, they selected the training object as often as the novel object. Experiment 2 revealed two factors that promoted selecting the novel object: allowing children to first satisfy their expectation/desire to communicate that one of the hidden objects matched the visual training object; and directing them to map the trained label onto the hidden training object before testing the novel label. Both factors affected the 4-year-olds’ responses more than the 3-year-olds’ responses. In both experiments, the tendency to map the novel label onto the novel hidden object was related to children’s reflective awareness of their knowledge of object names.

Name thesis:degree_name

MA

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

Grantor dc:publisher

Kent State University

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Wall, Jenna L.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Merriman, William

• Psychology

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1357918390

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:kent1357918390