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'Some' Effects of Age, Task, Task Content and Working Memory on Scalar Implicature Processing.

Leen Janssens¹, Iris Fabry¹, Walter Schaeken¹

¹Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, KU, Leuven (University of Leuven), Belgium.

Psychologica Belgica

|November 28, 2018

Summary

Children

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Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Linguistics
Cognitive Science

Background:

Scalar implicature, the process of deriving non-literal meanings (e.g., 'some' implies 'not all'), is crucial for effective communication.
Understanding when children develop pragmatic competence is key to explaining language acquisition and social cognition.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the developmental trajectory of scalar implicature processing in children aged 3, 5, and 7.
To examine the influence of task type (Action-Based-Task vs. Truth-Value Judgment Task) and cognitive load on pragmatic reasoning.
To determine the role of working memory (WM) capacity in children's ability to process scalar implicatures.

Main Methods:

Three experiments were conducted with children aged 3, 5, and 7.

Keywords:

age scalar implicature task task content working memory

Related Experiment Videos

Participants completed tasks varying in nature and cognitive content, including an Action-Based-Task and two Truth-Value Judgment Tasks.

Working memory capacity was assessed in 5- and 7-year-olds.

Main Results:

Three-year-olds frequently interpreted 'some' literally, while 5- and 7-year-olds demonstrated significant pragmatic reasoning abilities.
Task content modulated pragmatic responses, with Action-Based-Tasks yielding more pragmatic answers than Truth-Value Judgment Tasks.
Working memory capacity did not significantly correlate with pragmatic performance in 5- and 7-year-olds.

Conclusions:

Pragmatic competence in scalar implicature processing develops significantly between ages 3 and 7.
Task design critically influences children's demonstrated pragmatic abilities.
Working memory is not a limiting factor for scalar implicature processing in 5- and 7-year-olds.