Davies, C orcid.org/0000-0001-9347-7905 and Kreysa, H (2018) Look before you speak: Children’s integration of visual information into informative referring expressions. Journal of Child Language, 45 (5). pp. 1116-1143. ISSN 0305-0009
Abstract
Children's ability to refer is underpinned by their developing cognitive skills. Using a production task (n = 57), we examined pre-articulatory visual fixations to contrast objects (e.g., to a large apple when the target was a small one) to investigate how visual scanning drives informativeness across development. Eye-movements reveal that although four-year-olds fixate contrast objects to a similar extent as seven-year-olds and adults, this does not result in explicit referential informativeness. Instead, four-year-olds frequently omit distinguishing information from their referring expressions regardless of the comprehensiveness of their visual scan. In contrast, older children make greater use of information gleaned from their visual inspections, like adults. Thus, we find a barrier not to the incidence of contrast fixations by younger children, but to their use of them in referential informativeness. We recommend that follow-up work investigates whether younger children's immature executive skills prevent them from describing referents in relation to contrast objects.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) Cambridge University Press 2018. This article has been published in a revised form in Journal of Child Language https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000918000120. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. |
Keywords: | referring expressions, language production, eye tracking |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Languages Cultures & Societies (Leeds) > Linguistics & Phonetics (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number British Academy SQ120012 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 09 Apr 2018 14:55 |
Last Modified: | 14 Aug 2018 09:47 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1017/S0305000918000120 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:129407 |