Children's Social Information Seeking is Sensitive to Referential Ambiguity. Issue 6 (7th August 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hembacher, Emily; deMayo, Benjamin; Frank, Michael C.
• Is Part Of: Child development. Volume 91:Issue 6(2020)
• Page Start: e1178
• Page End: e1193
• Publication Date: 2020-08-07
• Subjects: Child development -- Periodicals; Child psychology -- Periodicals; Child Development -- Periodicals; Child Development; Pediatrics -- Periodicals; Pedicatrics; 305.231
• DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13427
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0009-3920

Abstract

Abstract : We examined children's spontaneous information seeking in response to referential ambiguity. Children ages 2–5 ( n = 160) identified the referents of familiar and novel labels. We manipulated ambiguity by changing the number of objects present and their familiarity (Experiments 1 and 2), and the availability of referential gaze (Experiment 2). In both experiments, children looked to the face of the experimenter more often while responding, specifically when the referent was ambiguous. In Experiment 2, 3‐ to 4‐year olds also demonstrated sensitivity to graded referential evidence. These results suggest that social information seeking is an active learning behavior that could contribute to language acquisition in early childhood.