Beatrice Benelli

Cognitive and linguistic factors in the development of word definitions.

Three studies were carried out in order to account for development of word definitions. Study i was aimed at analysing the role of class inclusion skills and age (5– and 7–year-olds and adults) in production of definitions containing superordinate categorical terms. No differences were found between 7-year-olds who had passed a class inclusion task and those who had not passed it as regards number of definitions containing superordinates, while differences were found between younger and older children and between children and adults. Study 2 was aimed at obtaining some normative criteria on the ‘goodness’ of definitions provided in Study 1, by using adult judges. It was found that the best definitions are those which contain both categorical terms and specific information about the to-be-defined object. It was also found that adults may adjust their standard definitional criteria to the kind of interlocutor (i.e. a child or a Martian). Study 3 confirms that younger childrens definitions fall far short of the adult informativeness and completeness criteria while, by the age of ten, such criteria are met. Overall results were interpreted as conforming to a progressive conventionalization of childrens strategies for defining objects.

‘To define means to say what you know about things’: the development of definitional skills as metalinguistic acquisition

Some authors have suggested that definitional skills include metalinguistic components (Watson, 1985; Snow, 1990; McGhee-Bidlack, 1991). The present study therefore empirically investigated relations between the ability to define words and level of metalinguistic awareness in 280 Italian children (with ages ranging from 5 to 11 years) and in two groups of 40 adults each (with low and high educational levels, respectively). We used a definitional task presenting 24 terms (nouns, verbs, and adjectives, which were either concrete or abstract) and a task examining 6 different aspects of metalinguistic awareness. Our aim was to demonstrate that metalinguistic skills can positively predict the formal quality of definitions and to identify various aspects of metalinguistic skills that might be directly related to definitional skills. Results showed better performance on both tasks as a function of age and educational level; they also confirmed the important roles of metalinguistic ability and educational level in producing well-structured formal definitions.

If it is a dog, can it be an animal? The role of metalinguistic knowledge in the acquisition of linguistic superordination

Acquisition of superordinate classification has traditionally been explained in terms of development of class inclusion. More recently, alternative explanations have been put forward by many authors, who consider superordination, as a product of linguistic and metalinguistic acquisitions. An experiment was carried out aimed at understanding the role of metalinguistic knowledge—defined in terms of the nominal realism/nominal relativism distinction. Subjects were 41 children from 7 years 1 month to 8 years 9 months, presented with a free-definition task of objects belonging to familiar categories and a questionnaire regarding the origin of names, their nature, exchangeability, etc. A significant correlation was found between spontaneous definitions of objects and conceptions of the relationships between names and things: Those subjects who are aware of the historical and cultural origin of names (decline of ontological realism) are also able to use superordinates in their definitions. However, superordination is not linked to awareness of the arbitrary nature of the word-referent connection (decline of logical realism).

A cross-linguistic study of real-word and non-word repetition as predictors of grammatical competence in children with typical language development

BACKGROUND Although relationships among non-word repetition, real-word repetition and grammatical ability have been documented, it is important to study whether the specific nature of these relationships is tied to the characteristics of a given language. AIMS The aim of this study is to explore the potential cross-linguistic differences (Italian and English) in the relationship among non-word repetition, real-word repetition, and grammatical ability in three-and four-year-old children with typical language development. METHODS & PROCEDURES To reach this goal, two repetition tasks (one real-word list and one non-word list for each language) were used. In Italian the grammatical categories were the third person plural inflection and the direct-object clitic pronouns, while in English they were the third person singular present tense inflection and the past tense in regular and irregular forms. OUTCOMES & RESULTS A cross-linguistic comparison showed that in both Italian and English, non-word repetition was a significant predictor of grammatical ability. However, performance on real-word repetition explained childrens grammatical ability in Italian but not in English. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS Abilities underlying non-word repetition performance (e.g., the processing and/or storage of phonological material) play an important role in the development of childrens grammatical abilities in both languages. Lexical ability (indexed by real-word repetition) showed a close relationship to grammatical ability in Italian but not in English. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of cross-linguistic differences, genetic research, clinical intervention and methodological issues.

Real-word repetition as a predictor of grammatical competence in Italian children with typical language development

BACKGROUND Non-word repetition in children is a skill related to, but separable from grammatical ability. Lexical skill may bridge the gap between these two abilities. AIMS The main aim was to determine whether real-word-repetition tasks could be better as predictors of grammatical ability than non-word-repetition tasks in children with typical language. This proposal was pursued because lexical knowledge was assumed to make performance in repetition tasks more representative of other language abilities, whereas non-word-repetition tasks are heavily influenced by phonological short-term memory. METHODS & PROCEDURES In order to investigate this possibility, three repetition tasks (two real-word lists characterized by different lexical knowledge and one non-word list), were compared in three groups of three- to four-year-olds with typical language (42 children). Grammatical ability was tested through probes for third-person plural inflection and direct-object critic use. OUTCOMES & RESULTS Real words were repeated more accurately than non-words and the non-words were more sensitive to Syllable length than real words. Performance on all repetition tasks was correlated with grammatical ability, but real words predicted variance in grammatical ability to a greater extent than non-words. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS Given the lexical information contained in real words, repetition of such words was a better predictor of grammatical ability than non-word repetition. Future research should replicate and extend these results. Tasks using real words may also have considerable clinical potential; for this reason, these tasks might also be included in studies of children with language impairment.

On the Linguistic Origin of Superordinate Categorization

The aim of this contribution is to provide empirical evidence for the hypothesis of the linguistic origin of superordinate categorization. Three studies are described, focused on the analysis of word

The influence of categorical organization on verbal working memory.

The aim of this study was to show the positive effects of categorical organization on verbal working memory (WM), in a modified version of a double task, such as the Listening Span Test (LST) (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980). Two experiments were performed comparing sentences with the typical definitional format (i.e., superordinate term, copula, and specification) to sentences simply describing objects or events. The results of the two experiments, with participants from children aged 6 to adults, revealed that word recall was better in Categorical sentences than in Descriptive sentences and are interpreted in terms of retrieval facilitation, due to pre-existing organization in semantic memory, at least from the age of 8 onwards. Recall performance was also better with sentences giving True statements than those giving False statements. Furthermore, Categorical False sentences are more effective in enhancing recall than Descriptive False sentences since they violate well-established semantic expectations. Such variables were also found to act among participants with a lower WM span, by this confirming that pre-existing organized information may compensate for less efficient WM.

Communicative skills in childhood: The case of twins

The present study aims at analyzing the skills involved in childrens performance on communicative referential tasks and the developmental changes in the type and quality of the messages. The performance of 28 twins and the performance of 28 singleton children were compared at different age levels (younger group, mean age = 5.5; older group, mean age = 10.4). Four different interactive situations were considered: (a) twin‐twin; (b) single born‐single born; (c) twin‐single born; (d) single bom‐twin. We predicted (a) a lower competence in twins, especially in the younger group, as compared to the non‐twin of the same age; and (b) differences in the communicative behavior of twins according to the listener. Although a MANOVA did not reveal poorer performances of twins in the number and type of information elements, path analyses indicated that there are different interactive styles and strategies between twins and singletons. The twin pairs tend to intervene in the interaction to support and complete the co‐...

Differences in Levels of Processing Related to Age

Many experimental studies have been carried out to demonstrate that a multiccmponent complex skill as reading can be described through a series of processing stages (LaBerge & Jay Samuels, 1974). A visual word activates different codes: visual, phonological, semantic and some operations take place within each code. Consequently reading disabilities could be due either to the inability to deal with the different internal codes produced by a word (Posner, 1978; Snowling, 1980) or to the difficulties to operate within each code. While theories differ about the relationship between letter processing and word processing, almost all acknowledge that children must identify and discriminate among letters in order to read fluently (Gibson, 1969). Posner (1978) reviewed some studies to show that separable codes are activated when a visual word is presented. These include the physical (visual) and the phonetic codes found for individual letters. Thus many of the question to which the reading process has been subjected can benefit from studies on matching of letters. To trace the nature of the codes activated and the time course of the efficiency of letter processing could help reading researchers to a better understanding of the early letter processing skills. The general aim of the present study is to define the codes upon which different operations take place and to isolate the stages of visual information processing both with alphanumeric and nonalphanumeric material.