The development of referential communication: speaking to different listeners

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Referential communication involves substantive, enabling, and procedural knowledge.
• Tailoring messages to listener needs is a key procedural rule.
• Understanding how children develop this skill is crucial for developmental research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if children adjust message information (contrastive/redundant) based on shared experience or listener age.
• To examine age-related differences in children's ability to tailor communication.
• To explore the acquisition of communicative competence in specific tasks.

Main Methods:

• Two studies used a referential communication game with first, fourth, and fifth graders.
• Children communicated with a fictitious listener under varying conditions (shared experience, listener age).
• Message content (redundant vs. contrastive) and tailoring strategies were analyzed.

Main Results:

• All children provided more redundant messages to unfamiliar listeners.
• Older children (fourth and fifth graders) adjusted message redundancy based on listener needs.
• Older children also varied information quantity according to listener age.

Conclusions:

• Communicative competence develops as task-specific skills.
• Children's ability to tailor messages improves with age and experience.
• Future research should focus on skill acquisition within specific communicative contexts.