Margaret Donaldson

Some clues to the nature of semantic development

Studies of comprehension of the quantifiers all and more are reported. The subjects were children between the ages of three and five. There were two main conditions. In one of these the objects to which the quantifiers related were enclosed in containers which either were or were not filled by the objects. In the other no containers were present. These conditions yielded substantially different response patterns. The relation of the findings to those typically obtained from Piagetian conservation tasks is discussed; and the implications for theories of semantic development are considered.

Primacy effect in short-term memory in young children

Subjects, between the ages of 4 and 7 years, took part in a study of short-term memory. The material was a series of pic ture cards. The pattern of results for Ss over 5 years approximated that typically found with adults. Among the younger children it appeared initially that no primacy effect was present. However, when allowance was made for position preference, some evidence of a primacy effect was obtained.

On a Method of Eliciting True/False Judgments from Young Children.

This note describes a method of getting pre-school children to judge whether statements are true or false. The method is based on the argument that young children are likely to make these judgments more readily, and in a way that more fully reflects their opinions, if the statements to be judged are ostensibly made not by an adult but by someone whom the child regards as being less able and less knowledgeable than himself. For this purpose, a ‘talking doll’ is used.