Children's referential communication: Components of plans for effective listening.

Abstract

We investigated the effects of two plans on children's listener behavior in a referential communication setting. The design systematically varied the presence and absence of instructions about apian to engage in comparison activities (comparison plan) and instructions about a plan to request more information if the speaker's message was ambiguous (action plan). Ninety-four elementary school children played the role of listener. The speaker was an adult confederate who produced messages of varying informational adequacy. Results showed that on an immediate test, children who received the action plan asked more questions .when the messages were ambiguous and made more correct referent choices than other subjects. These effects persisted on a test administered 2 weeks later and were observed both for nameable and abstract stimulus items. No significant effect of the comparison plan was observed. Overall, the results suggest that knowing when and how to request additional information is an important listener skill.Although studies of referential communi-study, for example, 4-, 6-, 8-, and 10-yearcation among children have focused mainly olds played the role of listener in a referenon the development of performance in the tial communication game. An adult speaker speaker role (Glucksberg, Krauss, & Hig-produced messages of varying informational gins, 1975), in recent research it has been adequacy. Significant development of lisshown that a variety of listener skills also tener skills was observed; 10-year-olds develop during childhood (Asher, 1976; asked more questions when the speaker's Bearison & Levey, 1977; Cosgrove & Pat-messages were inadequate and made more terson, 1977; Ironsmith & Whitehurst, in correct referent choices. More important in press).the present context, however, the introduc-In the Cosgrove and Patterson (1977) tion of a plan for effective listening, which stressed the importance of comparing refer-This research was supported by a National institute ents with the messages and requesting more of Mental Health Grant MH29423 and by National Sci-information if messages were inadequate, ence Foundation Grant BNS77-15277 to the first au-facilitated the performance of all but the th Tne authors are grateful to Catherine Carre.., Tyree *»*&* children. This latter finding has re-MacFariand, and Scott Wiley for their help in conduct-cently been replicated by Cosgrove and Pating the study. Special thanks are due to A. Hamilton terson (in press). Bishop, Diane Eliason, and the teachers of St. Anne's An important question raised by these re-Belneld School in Charlottesvi.ie, Virginia, for their sults con cerns the features of the plan that C °Erfor reprints should be sent to Charlotte were responsible for its efficacy. One cause Patterson, Department of Psychology, University of 01 children S initial failures might be a Virginia,

Facilitating the Communicative Competence of the Child Witness

“…Laboratory studies suggest that preschoolers can recognize comprehension difficulties and implement strategies for resolving them; however, they are best able to do so in naturalistic settings when tasks and stimuli are simple, familiar, and require nonverbal responses to physically present referents (e.g., Revelle, Wellman, & Karabenick, 1985). In contrast, in studies where settings, tasks, and stimuli tend to be complex, verbal, and unfamiliar, young children have difficulty detecting message adequacy, may not know when they have failed to understand a message, and rarely question ambiguous messages or request clarification from adults (Asher, 1976;Ironsmith & Whitehurst, 1978;Markman, 1977Markman, , 1979Patterson, Massad, & Cosgrove, 1978). Children are likely to demonstrate similar difficulties in the forensic context because the task is related not only to communication, but also to memory; the setting is unfamiliar, it lacks physically present referents, and questions are unlikely to be well matched to the child's level of language development.…”

Children's understanding of the relation between expressions (what was said) and intentions (what was meant)

“…A number of researchers have noted this insensitivity to the quality of the message. Some have interpreted this difficulty as one of producing messages which represent an exclusive referent (Flavell, 1974;Bearison 8c Levey, 1977;Karabenick 8c Miller, 1977;Patterson et al, 1978). Yet Pratt (1981) and Meissner (1978) have found that five-yearolds demonstrate superior recall for adequate over inadequate messages generated by others and tend to give complete messages themselves.…”

Children's Inquiry Strategies in Referential Communication and in the Game of Twenty Questions

“…Listeners aged 6-10 years who did not spon-taneously question a speaker following an ambiguous message did so when given a "plan" for effective listening that emphasized the importance of asking questions (Cosgrove & Patterson, 1977;Patterson, Massad, & Cosgrove, 1978). Listeners aged 6-10 years who did not spon-taneously question a speaker following an ambiguous message did so when given a "plan" for effective listening that emphasized the importance of asking questions (Cosgrove & Patterson, 1977;Patterson, Massad, & Cosgrove, 1978).…”