Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
J Child Lang. 2012 Jan;39(1):90-104. doi: 10.1017/S0305000911000018. Epub 2011 May 20.
Preschoolers participated in a modified version of the disambiguation task, designed to test whether the pragmatic environment generated by a reliable or unreliable speaker affected how children interpreted novel labels. Two objects were visible to children, while a third was only visible to the speaker (a fact known by the child). Manipulating whether a novel object was visible to both interlocutors or hidden from the child tested the child's understanding of pragmatic expectations of interlocutor competence. When interacting with a speaker with a history of accurately labeling familiar objects, children responded appropriately in both cases. When interacting with a speaker who previously generated inaccurate labels for familiar objects, children's behavior and eye-movements reflected their belief that the speaker was not a competent communicator. These data support the hypothesis that children consider the pragmatic environment constructed by an interlocutor when that speaker asks them to make a lexical inference.
学龄前儿童参与了一个经过修改的歧义消解任务，旨在测试可靠或不可靠的说话者所产生的语用环境是否会影响儿童对新标签的解释。两个物体对儿童可见，而第三个物体仅对说话者可见（儿童知道这一事实）。通过操纵新物体是否对两个对话者都可见或对儿童隐藏来测试儿童对对话者能力的语用期望的理解。当与一个有准确标记熟悉物体历史的说话者互动时，儿童在两种情况下都做出了适当的反应。当与一个之前为熟悉物体生成不准确标签的说话者互动时，儿童的行为和眼动反映了他们认为说话者不是一个有能力的沟通者的信念。这些数据支持了这样一种假设，即当说话者要求他们进行词汇推理时，儿童会考虑说话者构建的语用环境。
