Academic Paper |
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| Title: | What Hinders Child Semantic Computation: Children's Universal Quantification and the Development of Cognitive Control |
| Author: | Utako Minai |
| Institution: | University of Kansas |
| Author: | Nobuyuki Jincho |
| Institution: | RIKEN Brain Science Institute |
| Author: | Naoto Yamane |
| Institution: | RIKEN Brain Science Institute |
| Author: | Reiko Mazuka |
| Institution: | Language Development Lab, Duke University |
| Linguistic Field: | Cognitive Science; Language Acquisition |
| Subject Language: |
Japanese
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| Abstract: | Recent studies on the acquisition of semantics have argued that knowledge of the universal quantifier is adult-like throughout development. However, there domains where children still exhibit non-adult-like universal quantification, and arguments for the early mastery of relevant semantic knowledge do not explain what causes such non-adult-like interpretations. The present study investigates Japanese four- and five-year-old children's atypical universal quantification in light of the development of cognitive control. We hypothesized that children's still-developing cognitive control contributes to their atypical universal quantification. Using a combined eye-tracking and interpretation task together with a non-linguistic measure of cognitive control, we revealed a link between the achievement of adult-like universal quantification and the development of flexible perspective-switch. We argue that the development of cognitive control is one of the factors that contribute to children's processing of semantics. |
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This article appears in Journal of Child Language Vol. 39, Issue 5, which you can read on Cambridge's site or on LINGUIST . |
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