Conventional Wisdom: Negotiating Conventions of Reference Enhances Category Learning

Autor/inn/en	Voiklis, John; Corter, James E.
Titel	Conventional Wisdom: Negotiating Conventions of Reference Enhances Category Learning
Quelle	In: Cognitive Science, 36 (2012) 4, S.607-634 (28 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0364-0213
DOI	10.1111/j.1551-6709.2011.01230.x
Schlagwörter	Classification; Interpersonal Communication; Cooperation; Attention; Language Usage; Pragmatics; Dialogs (Language); Pretests Posttests; College Students; New York + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Classification system; Klassifikation; Klassifikationssystem; Interpersonale Kommunikation; Co-operation; Kooperation; Aufmerksamkeit; Sprachgebrauch; Pragmalinguistik; Dialog; Dialogs; Dialogue; Dialogues; Collegestudent
Abstract	Collaborators generally coordinate their activities through communication, during which they readily negotiate a shared lexicon for activity-related objects. This social-pragmatic activity both recruits and affects cognitive and social-cognitive processes ranging from selective attention to perspective taking. We ask whether negotiating reference also facilitates category learning or might private verbalization yield comparable facilitation? Participants in three referential conditions learned to classify imaginary creatures according to combinations of functional features--nutritive and destructive--that implicitly defined four categories. Remote partners communicated in the Dialogue condition. In the Monologue condition, participants recorded audio descriptions for their own later use. Controls worked silently. Dialogue yielded better category learning, with wider distribution of attention. Monologue offered no benefits over working silently. We conclude that negotiating reference compels collaborators to find communicable structure in their shared activity; this social-pragmatic constraint accelerates category learning and likely provides much of the benefit recently ascribed to learning labeled categories. (Contains 1 table, 7 figures, and 4 notes.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10