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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 24, 2026

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
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Young children create partner-specific referential pacts with peers.

Bahar Köymen1, Daniel Schmerse2, Elena Lieven3

  • 1Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology.

Developmental Psychology
|September 3, 2014
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Preschoolers develop partner-specific language use by age six. Children learn to establish referential pacts, showing early understanding of linguistic conventions and flexibility in communication.

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Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Peers establish shared labels for objects through referential communication.
  • Understanding how children develop these communication strategies is crucial for developmental research.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how preschool-aged children establish referential pacts with peers.
  • To examine age-related differences in the development of partner-specific language use.

Main Methods:

  • Two studies utilized referential communication tasks with German-speaking peers aged 4 and 6.
  • Children communicated about artifacts, with Study 2 focusing on the use of proper names.

Main Results:

  • Six-year-olds, unlike 4-year-olds, demonstrated consistent use of established labels with familiar partners.
  • Both age groups successfully formed partner-specific referential pacts when using proper names.
  • Children showed flexibility by simplifying expressions with new partners.

Conclusions:

  • Preschool children recognize the conventional nature of language, even before age six.
  • Significant flexibility in establishing and adapting referential pacts emerges between ages 4 and 6.