Roses Are Red, Socks Are Blue: Switching Dimensions Disrupts Young Children's Language Comprehension.

ABSTRACT: Language is used to identify objects in many different ways. An apple can be identified using its name, color, and other attributes. Skilled language comprehension requires listeners to flexibly shift between different dimensions. We asked whether this shifting would be difficult for 3-year-olds, who have relatively immature executive function skills and struggle to switch between dimensions in card sorting tasks. In the current experiment, children first heard a series of sentences identifying objects using a single dimension (either names or colors). In the second half of the experiment, the labeling dimension was switched. Children were significantly less accurate in fixating the correct object following the dimensional switch. This disruption, however, was temporary; recognition accura

SUBMITTER: Pomper R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4927186 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature