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Related Experiment Videos

How shall a deceptive thing be called?

W E Merriman1, L H Jarvis, J M Marazita

  • 1Department of Psychology, Kent State University, OH 44242, USA.

Journal of Child Language
|February 1, 1995
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Children

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Development
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Language Acquisition

Background:

  • Understanding the distinction between appearance and reality is crucial for cognitive development.
  • Children's ability to label objects based on their perceived versus actual properties develops with age.
  • Previous research indicates a shift in how children apply labels as they mature.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how children aged 3-5 years apply different types of labels (simple, appearance-predicated, reality-predicated) to deceptive stimuli.
  • To examine the development of the appearance-reality distinction in children's labeling practices.
  • To explore the constraints on children's ability to assign multiple labels to a single object.

Main Methods:

  • Thirty-six children aged 3, 4, and 5 years participated.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Children were presented with deceptive stimuli (e.g., an eraser that looked like a pencil).
  • They were asked to select labels using three conditions: simple, appearance-predicated, and reality-predicated.

    • Main Results:

    • An age-related shift in simple labeling was observed, with older children better distinguishing appearance from reality.
    • Older children more readily applied different labels for appearance versus reality compared to younger children.
    • All age groups showed reluctance to assign more than one label to an object under a common predicate, a pattern influenced by predicate type and semantic domain.

    Conclusions:

    • Children's understanding of the appearance-reality distinction significantly impacts their labeling abilities.
    • Developmental changes in cognitive flexibility and biases like Mutual Exclusivity influence children's labeling strategies.
    • The findings highlight the complex interplay between cognitive development, language, and conceptual understanding in early childhood.