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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 9, 2026

An Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Ageing on Sentence Processing

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Published on: October 25, 2019

Developmental Changes in Children's Processing of Redundant Modifiers in Definite Object Descriptions.

Ruud Koolen¹, Emiel Krahmer¹, Marc Swerts¹

¹Tilburg Center for Cognition and Communication, Tilburg University Tilburg, Netherlands.

Frontiers in Psychology

|December 21, 2016

Summary

Young children prefer sweets with extra details, showing developmental changes in how they process descriptive language. Older children, however, are less influenced by redundant information.

Keywords:

language development maxim of quantity overspecification pragmatics referring expressions

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Development
Developmental Psychology
Linguistic Processing

Background:

Children's understanding of language evolves with age.
The impact of redundant information on decision-making in children is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate developmental changes in children's interpretation of redundant information in object descriptions.
To examine how age influences the preference for items described with extra, non-essential details.

Main Methods:

Two experiments were conducted with children aged 6-7 and 9-10 years.
Experiment 1: Pairwise comparison of identical sweets with one described using a redundant modifier.
Experiment 2: Graded rating of single sweets, with half described using a redundant color modifier.

Main Results:

Younger children (6-7 years) showed a preference for sweets described with redundant information.
Older children (9-10 years) did not exhibit a significant preference based on redundant information.
Redundant information did not affect older children's preferences.

Conclusions:

Children's processing of redundant information changes developmentally.
Younger children may interpret redundant information as more informative, while older children learn to disregard it.
This suggests children are learning to infer the communicative intent behind descriptive language.