Retrieval mechanisms in the development of instance and superordinate naming of pictures

Children's use of superordinate names lags behind their use of instance names, and production lags behind comprehension. The hypothesis that both of these developmental delays reflect underlying retrieval difficulties predicts an interaction between name generality (instance vs. superordinate) and task (comprehension vs. production). Specifically, production of superordinate names should be more difficult for children than the separate name generality and task effects would predict. To examine this hypothesis, 32 junior kindergarten and 32 Grade 1 children in Experiment 1 performed an instance and superordinate name comprehension task for 96 single-exemplar pictures from 12 categories, and 32 junior kindergarten and 32 Grade 1 children in Experiment 2 produced instance or superordinate names for the same pictures. As predicted, the combination of superordinate names and language production was particularly difficult, especially for junior kindergarten children. High rates of instance name intrusions and other findings suggest that superordinate name production may be interfered with by more readily available instance names. Weak inhibition of competing instance names and other mechanistic explanations for the effects are considered.