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ERIC Number: EJ756648
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2007
Pages: 10
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-3920
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Infants' Use of Shared Linguistic Information to Clarify Ambiguous Requests
Ganea, Patricia A.; Saylor, Megan M.
Child Development, v78 n2 p493-502 Mar-Apr 2007
Do infants use past linguistic information to interpret an ambiguous request for an object? When infants in this research were shown 2 objects, and asked for 1 with an indefinite request (e.g., "Can you get it for me?"), both 15- and 18-month-olds used the speaker's previous reference to an absent object to interpret the request. The 18-month-olds did so even when the request was made after a 2.5-min delay. When the request was made by a person who did not participate in the conversation, the infants did not use the previous verbal information. These results demonstrate infants' ability to use language as a source of information in ambiguous contexts and indicate an early appreciation of the shared nature of conversation.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A