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Acquiring Non-Object Terms: The Case for Time Words.
Marilyn Shatz1, Medha Tare, Simone P Nguyen
1University of Michigan.
Summary
Preschoolers often misunderstand abstract time words like minutes and hours. While they create meaning categories, their knowledge of specific durations remains incomplete, impacting accurate time comprehension.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Children's acquisition of abstract words, particularly temporal terms, is complex.
- Preschoolers' understanding of concepts like time is still developing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate preschoolers' knowledge of abstract time-duration words (minutes, hours, days, years).
- To examine how children aged 4-6 years comprehend and use these terms.
Main Methods:
- Two studies were conducted: one assessing question-answering about durations, the other using a forced-choice pointing task.
- Participants included 4- to 6-year-old preschoolers.
Main Results:
- Preschoolers demonstrate incomplete knowledge of specific time-duration word meanings.
- Children's understanding aligns with patterns observed in toddlers' acquisition of abstract words.
- Children often form lexical domains for time words before mastering individual meanings, leading to appropriate but not always correct responses.
Conclusions:
- Preschoolers' comprehension of abstract time words is developing but not fully accurate.
- The findings highlight a developmental pattern in abstract word acquisition, where conceptual domains are established prior to precise semantic understanding.
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