Graham Susan A, Sedivy Julie, Khu Melanie
University of Calgary.
J Child Lang. 2014 Jan;41(1):34-50. doi: 10.1017/S0305000912000530. Epub 2013 Feb 11.
In a conversation, adults expect speakers to be consistent in their use of a particular expression. We examine whether four-year-olds expect speakers to use consistent referential descriptions and whether these expectations are partner-specific. Using an eye-tracking paradigm, we presented four-year-olds with arrays of objects on a screen. During training, Experimenter 1 (E1) used a target expression to identify one object (i.e. "the spotted dog" to identify a dog that is both spotted and fluffy). Following training, either E1 or a new conversational partner (E2) presented children with test trials. Here, the target objects were referred to using either the original expression (e.g. "the spotted dog") or a new expression (e.g. "the fluffy dog"). Eye-movements indicated that preschoolers were quicker to identify the target referent when the original expression was used by the same speaker. This suggests that four-year-olds, like adults, expect communicative partners to adhere to referential pacts.
在对话中,成年人期望说话者在使用特定表达方式时保持一致。我们研究了四岁儿童是否期望说话者使用一致的指称描述,以及这些期望是否针对特定的伙伴。我们使用眼动追踪范式,在屏幕上向四岁儿童展示一系列物体。在训练过程中,实验者1(E1)使用目标表达式来识别一个物体(例如,用“有斑点的狗”来识别一只既有斑点又毛茸茸的狗)。训练后,要么E1,要么一个新的对话伙伴(E2)对儿童进行测试。在这里,目标物体要么用原来的表达式(例如,“有斑点的狗”),要么用一个新的表达式(例如,“毛茸茸的狗”)来指代。眼动表明,当同一个说话者使用原来的表达式时,学龄前儿童能更快地识别目标指称对象。这表明,四岁儿童和成年人一样,期望交流伙伴遵守指称约定。