{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/69204"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/69204","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"The Development of the Ability to Distinguish Between Literal and Intended Meanings of Messages","abstract":"The purpose of this thesis was to identify the circumstances under which the ability to distinguish between the literal and the intended meanings of messages emerge. Young children's ability to detect ambiguity in spoken messages seems limited because they do not appear to understand that the words used in a message, the literal meaning of the message, do not always specify exactly what the speaker intended those words to mean.","abstract_html":"The purpose of this thesis was to identify the circumstances under which the ability to distinguish between the literal and the intended meanings of messages emerge. Young children's ability to detect ambiguity in spoken messages seems limited because they do not appear to understand that the words used in a message, the literal meaning of the message, do not always specify exactly what the speaker intended those words to mean.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Webber, Lynne Suzanne"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Education","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Brown, Ann L.,"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2014,"date_issued":"2014-12-15T18:52:02Z","date_published":"2014-12-15T18:52:02Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:00Z","subjects":["Education, Early Childhood","Psychology, Developmental"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["(UMI)AAI8823281"],"render_values":[{"text":"(UMI)AAI8823281","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/69204","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Brown, Ann L.,"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Webber, Lynne Suzanne"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2014-12-15T18:52:02Z","10000-01-01","1988"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Education"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Education, Early Childhood","Psychology, Developmental"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/69204","(UMI)AAI8823281"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["The purpose of this thesis was to identify the circumstances under which the ability to distinguish between the literal and the intended meanings of messages emerge. Young children's ability to detect ambiguity in spoken messages seems limited because they do not appear to understand that the words used in a message, the literal meaning of the message, do not always specify exactly what the speaker intended those words to mean.","In four studies, children were asked to judge the adequacy of messages that decribed the hiding place of toy animals. In all studies half the children knew the location of the toy and therefore, knew the speaker's intended meaning, whereas the remaining children did not know the toy's location. In Studies I and II task difficulty was varied by increasing the size of the judgement array in order to establish whether increases in cognitive load would affect four- to eight-year-olds ability to distinguish between the literal and intended meanings of messages. In Study III, children were asked to recall the speaker's literal message before judging message adequacy in order to see whether young children have difficulty keeping the literal and intended meanings of the message in mind simultaneously. In Study IV, young children were taught to solve literal-intended meaning problems more efficiently.","The findings of the research support four general conclusions. First, the results are consistent with the view that young children have a limited understanding of the literal-intended meaning distinction. Second, even older children have difficulty distinguishing between literal and intended meanings of messages when task demands are increased. Third, young children appear to fuse the literal and the intended meanings of messages, and based their judgment of message adequacy on the fused version. Fourth, young children can be taught to distinguish between literal and intended meanings of messages. Overall, the findings are consistent with a cognitive limitations hypothesis.","Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-15T18:52:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 8823281.pdf: 6481384 bytes, checksum: 991f82e05e63413de3890f13a216dd08 (MD5) Previous issue date: 1988","Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 69370 Lift date: Forever Reason: Restricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETDs","Restricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETDs","U of I Only","189 p.","Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1988."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Development of the Ability to Distinguish Between Literal and Intended Meanings of Messages"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Brown, Ann L.,"],"dc:creator":["Webber, Lynne Suzanne"],"dc:date":["2014-12-15T18:52:02Z","10000-01-01","1988"],"dc:description":["The purpose of this thesis was to identify the circumstances under which the ability to distinguish between the literal and the intended meanings of messages emerge. Young children's ability to detect ambiguity in spoken messages seems limited because they do not appear to understand that the words used in a message, the literal meaning of the message, do not always specify exactly what the speaker intended those words to mean.","In four studies, children were asked to judge the adequacy of messages that decribed the hiding place of toy animals. In all studies half the children knew the location of the toy and therefore, knew the speaker's intended meaning, whereas the remaining children did not know the toy's location. In Studies I and II task difficulty was varied by increasing the size of the judgement array in order to establish whether increases in cognitive load would affect four- to eight-year-olds ability to distinguish between the literal and intended meanings of messages. In Study III, children were asked to recall the speaker's literal message before judging message adequacy in order to see whether young children have difficulty keeping the literal and intended meanings of the message in mind simultaneously. In Study IV, young children were taught to solve literal-intended meaning problems more efficiently.","The findings of the research support four general conclusions. First, the results are consistent with the view that young children have a limited understanding of the literal-intended meaning distinction. Second, even older children have difficulty distinguishing between literal and intended meanings of messages when task demands are increased. Third, young children appear to fuse the literal and the intended meanings of messages, and based their judgment of message adequacy on the fused version. Fourth, young children can be taught to distinguish between literal and intended meanings of messages. Overall, the findings are consistent with a cognitive limitations hypothesis.","Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-15T18:52:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 8823281.pdf: 6481384 bytes, checksum: 991f82e05e63413de3890f13a216dd08 (MD5) Previous issue date: 1988","Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 69370 Lift date: Forever Reason: Restricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETDs","Restricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETDs","U of I Only","189 p.","Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1988."],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/69204","(UMI)AAI8823281"],"dc:subject":["Education, Early Childhood","Psychology, Developmental"],"dc:title":["The Development of the Ability to Distinguish Between Literal and Intended Meanings of Messages"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Education"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:00Z"}