Division of Human Communication, Development & Hearing, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, NL-2502 AR The Hague, The Netherlands; Department of Linguistics, University College London, London WC1N 1PF, UK.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2025 Jan;249:106066. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106066. Epub 2024 Sep 14.
Sensitivity to linguistic cues, in theory, can change the interpretation of social and game theoretical behavior. We tested this in a pair of experiments with children aged 4 and 5 years. Children were asked to give some, keep some, or put some stickers for themselves or for another player (a puppet) after collaborative activities. We found that the direction of the verb did influence how selfish the younger children were. We also had children tidy up the toys after each activity to determine their interpretation of some. Children could derive the pragmatic scalar implicature linked to some (i.e., interpreting it as meaning not all), and they did so particularly when it affected them personally. These findings have important implications for the stability of other-regarding preferences and the importance of instructions in games.
从理论上讲，对语言线索的敏感性可以改变对社会和博弈论行为的解释。我们在两个实验中对 4 岁和 5 岁的儿童进行了测试。在合作活动后，孩子们被要求为自己或另一个玩家（木偶）选择一些、保留一些或放置一些贴纸。我们发现，动词的方向确实会影响年幼的孩子的自私程度。我们还让孩子们在每次活动后整理玩具，以确定他们对“一些”的理解。孩子们可以推导出与“一些”相关的语用级差含义（即，将其解释为不是全部的意思），特别是当这对他们自己有影响时更是如此。这些发现对其他关注偏好的稳定性和游戏中指令的重要性具有重要意义。
