Cognitive Flexibility Supports Preschoolers' Detection of Communicative Ambiguity

Autor/inn/en	Gillis, Randall; Nilsen, Elizabeth S.
Titel	Cognitive Flexibility Supports Preschoolers' Detection of Communicative Ambiguity
Quelle	In: First Language, 34 (2014) 1, S.58-71 (14 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0142-7237
DOI	10.1177/0142723714521839
Schlagwörter	Cognitive Ability; Preschool Children; Language Acquisition; Ambiguity (Semantics); Receptive Language; Age Differences; Correlation; Toys; Elementary School Students; Video Technology; Language Processing; Task Analysis; Skill Development; Classification; Statistical Analysis; Predictor Variables; Test of Language Development + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Denkfähigkeit; Pre-school age; Preschool age; Child; Children; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Vorschulalter; Kind; Kinder; Vorschulkind; Vorschulkinder; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Rezeptive Kommunikationsfähigkeit; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Korrelation; Toy; Spielzeug; Sprachverarbeitung; Aufgabenanalyse; Kompetenzentwicklung; Qualifikationsentwicklung; Classification system; Klassifikation; Klassifikationssystem; Statistische Analyse; Prädiktor
Abstract	To become successful communicators, children must be sensitive to the clarity/ambiguity of language. Significant gains in children's ability to detect communicative ambiguity occur during the early school-age years. However, little is known about the cognitive abilities that support this development. Relations between cognitive flexibility and ambiguity detection were assessed in preschool (4- to 5-years-old, n = 40) and school-age (6- to 7-years-old, n = 36) children. Children rated the quality of clues (unambiguous/ambiguous) to the location of hidden stimuli provided by a videotaped speaker. Cognitive flexibility was assessed through a task requiring children to sequentially sort toys. Both age groups rated ambiguous clues as less helpful than unambiguous clues; however, school-age children were better able to detect ambiguity. Cognitive flexibility was related to preschool (but not school-age) children's communicative ambiguity detection, when controlling for age and receptive language. Results suggest that cognitive flexibility may be particularly important for the initial development of ambiguity detection. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01