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What's new? children prefer novelty in referent selection

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 17:48 authored by Jessica HorstJessica Horst, Larissa K Samuelson, Sarah C Kucker, Bob McMurray
Determining the referent of a novel name is a critical task for young language learners. The majority of studies on children's referent selection focus on manipulating the sources of information (linguistic, contextual and pragmatic) that children can use to solve the referent mapping problem. Here, we take a step back and explore how children's endogenous biases towards novelty and their own familiarity with novel objects influence their performance in such a task. We familiarized 2-year-old children with previously novel objects. Then, on novel name referent selection trials children were asked to select the referent from three novel objects: two previously seen and one completely novel object. Children demonstrated a clear bias to select the most novel object. A second experiment controls for pragmatic responding and replicates this finding. We conclude, therefore, that children's referent selection is biased by previous exposure and children's endogenous bias to novelty.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Cognition

ISSN

0010-0277

Publisher

Elsevier

Issue

2

Volume

118

Page range

234-244

Pages

12.0

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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    University of Sussex (Publications)

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