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Explaining the disambiguation effect: Don't exclude mutual exclusivity*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2009

VIKRAM K. JASWAL
VIKRAM K. JASWAL*
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
*
Address for correspondence: Vikram Jaswal, Department of Psychology, 102 Gilmer Hall, P.O. Box 400400, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4400. tel: (434) 982-4709; fax: (434) 982-4766; e-mail: jaswal@virginia.edu
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Abstract

When they see a familiar object and an unfamiliar one, and are asked to select the referent of a novel label, children usually choose the unfamiliar object. We asked whether this ‘disambiguation effect’ reflects an expectation that each object has just one label (mutual exclusivity), or an expectation about the intent of the speaker who uses a novel label. In Study 1, when a speaker gazed at or pointed toward the familiar object in a novel–familiar pair, children aged 2 ; 6 (N=64) selected that object in response to a neutral request, but were much less likely to do so in response to a label request. In Study 2, when a speaker both gazed at and pointed toward the familiar object, toddlers (N=16) overwhelmingly selected the familiar object in response to a label request. The expectation that each object has just one label can lead children to discount some individual behavioral cues to a speaker's intent, though it can be overridden given a combination of pragmatic cues.

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Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 95 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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Footnotes

[*]

Thanks to the children and parents who participated in these studies. Thanks also to Heather Burns, Christin Chambers, Christina Cheung, Lindsay Goldman, Lauren Malone, Mayra Perez and Anna Walters for assistance with data collection and coding, and to Andrei Cimpian and Rechele Brooks for helpful discussion. This research was supported by NICHD Grant HD-053403.

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