ABSTRACT
Twelve children with language disorders and 12 control subjects were presented with a series of 24 photographic plates from the Metaphoric Triads Test and asked to explain all possible pairings. They also performed a similar task, matched for content, using verbally prepared stimuli. For each trial, one pairing had been designed to make highly probable a metaphoric pairing. Control subjects provided significantly more metaphoric accounts of pairings than children with language disorders, regardless of modality. In addition, photographic plates elicited significantly more metaphoric pairings than verbal preparations. No significant interactions were observed. The findings are discussed from the perspectives of (1) generalized symbolic function and (2) verbal mediation function. The authors call for more research on the role of verbal mediation in metaphoric reasoning.
Subject(s)
Language Development Disorders/diagnosis , Paired-Associate Learning , Pattern Recognition, Visual , Child , Female , Humans , Language Development Disorders/psychology , Language Tests , Male , Reference Values , Verbal LearningABSTRACT
The effects of informativeness upon the learning of bipolar adjectives were examined by asking 20 preschoolers to learn novel words descriptive of different lengths vs tensions of a coiled spring. The set of adjectives which contrasted most highly for informativeness showed the greatest asymmetry for successful learning.
Subject(s)
Concept Formation , Language Development , Mental Recall , Vocabulary , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Male , Retention, PsychologyABSTRACT
This study compared the ability of language learning disabled children and sex/age matched normals to judge the correctness of linguistic stress. Subjects were presented with prerecorded pairs of question-answer trials. In one series they were asked to judge the appropriateness of linguistic stress for each pair. In a second series, they judged semantic appropriateness of the pairs in order to provide a linguistic point of reference for their understanding of the questions. An analysis of variance indicated that the linguistic stress task was more difficult than the semantic interpretation task (p less than .001) and that normal children performed significantly better than LD children on both tasks (p less than .05). Discussion of the data includes interpretation from both perceptual deficit and symbolic deficit perspectives.
Subject(s)
Learning Disabilities/psychology , Linguistics , Child , Cues , Female , Humans , Male , Semantics , Speech Perception , SymbolismABSTRACT
Normal-speaking/hearing 2-, 3-, and 4-yr.-old children (N = 15) were asked to point to pictorial representations of words in a forced-choice task. The auditory stimuli were randomized tape-recorded presentations of each subject's mother and a male stranger. An analysis of variance indicated that subjects, regardless of age, understood their mothers better.
