Reflectivity bias in picture-pointing grammatical comprehension tasks

Two studies, one correlational and one experimental, supported the hypothesis that 4- and 5-year-olds' performance on a picture-pointing grammatical comprehension task administered under standard procedures is highly influenced by reflectivity style. In the first study, a substantial correlation was obtained between reflectivity and picture-pointing grammatical comprehension task performance. This correlation was significantly greater than that between reflectivity and object-manipulation grammatical comprehension task performance. In the second study, a reflectivity-promoting but grammatically irrelevant modification in the administration of the picture-pointing task resulted in significantly improved comprehension scores and a significantly lower correlation with reflectivity.