Do You Know What I Know? The Impact of Participant Role in Children's Referential Communication

For successful language use, interlocutors must be able to accurately assess their shared knowledge (“common ground”). Such knowledge can be accumulated through linguistic and non-linguistic context, but the same context can be associated with different patterns of knowledge, depending on the interl...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Branigan, Holly P., Bell, Jenny, McLean, Janet F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4763043/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26941681
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00213
_version_ 1782417191993344000
author Branigan, Holly P.
Bell, Jenny
McLean, Janet F.
author_facet Branigan, Holly P.
Bell, Jenny
McLean, Janet F.
author_sort Branigan, Holly P.
collection PubMed
description For successful language use, interlocutors must be able to accurately assess their shared knowledge (“common ground”). Such knowledge can be accumulated through linguistic and non-linguistic context, but the same context can be associated with different patterns of knowledge, depending on the interlocutor's participant role (Wilkes-Gibbs and Clark, 1992). Although there is substantial evidence that children's ability to model partners' knowledge develops gradually, most such evidence focuses on non-linguistic context. We investigated the extent to which 8- to 10-year-old children can assess common ground developed through prior linguistic context, and whether this is sensitive to variations in participant role. Children repeatedly described tangram figures to another child, and then described the same figures to a third child who had been a side-participant, an overhearer, or absent during the initial conversation. Children showed evidence of partner modeling, producing shorter referential expressions with repeated mention to the same partner. Moreover, they demonstrated sensitivity to differences in common ground with the third child based on participant role on some but not all measures (e.g., description length, but not definiteness). Our results suggest that by ten, children make distinctions about common ground accumulated through prior linguistic context but do not yet consistently deploy this knowledge in an adult-like way.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4763043
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2016
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-47630432016-03-03 Do You Know What I Know? The Impact of Participant Role in Children's Referential Communication Branigan, Holly P. Bell, Jenny McLean, Janet F. Front Psychol Psychology For successful language use, interlocutors must be able to accurately assess their shared knowledge (“common ground”). Such knowledge can be accumulated through linguistic and non-linguistic context, but the same context can be associated with different patterns of knowledge, depending on the interlocutor's participant role (Wilkes-Gibbs and Clark, 1992). Although there is substantial evidence that children's ability to model partners' knowledge develops gradually, most such evidence focuses on non-linguistic context. We investigated the extent to which 8- to 10-year-old children can assess common ground developed through prior linguistic context, and whether this is sensitive to variations in participant role. Children repeatedly described tangram figures to another child, and then described the same figures to a third child who had been a side-participant, an overhearer, or absent during the initial conversation. Children showed evidence of partner modeling, producing shorter referential expressions with repeated mention to the same partner. Moreover, they demonstrated sensitivity to differences in common ground with the third child based on participant role on some but not all measures (e.g., description length, but not definiteness). Our results suggest that by ten, children make distinctions about common ground accumulated through prior linguistic context but do not yet consistently deploy this knowledge in an adult-like way. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-02-23 /pmc/articles/PMC4763043/ /pubmed/26941681 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00213 Text en Copyright © 2016 Branigan, Bell and McLean. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Branigan, Holly P.
Bell, Jenny
McLean, Janet F.
Do You Know What I Know? The Impact of Participant Role in Children's Referential Communication
title Do You Know What I Know? The Impact of Participant Role in Children's Referential Communication
title_full Do You Know What I Know? The Impact of Participant Role in Children's Referential Communication
title_fullStr Do You Know What I Know? The Impact of Participant Role in Children's Referential Communication
title_full_unstemmed Do You Know What I Know? The Impact of Participant Role in Children's Referential Communication
title_short Do You Know What I Know? The Impact of Participant Role in Children's Referential Communication
title_sort do you know what i know? the impact of participant role in children's referential communication
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4763043/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26941681
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00213
work_keys_str_mv AT braniganhollyp doyouknowwhatiknowtheimpactofparticipantroleinchildrensreferentialcommunication
AT belljenny doyouknowwhatiknowtheimpactofparticipantroleinchildrensreferentialcommunication
AT mcleanjanetf doyouknowwhatiknowtheimpactofparticipantroleinchildrensreferentialcommunication