Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-01T21:23:43.812Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Children's comprehension of Italian comparative forms and the three-term problem solution*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Camilla Gobbo  and
Franca Agnoli
Camilla Gobbo
Affiliation:
Università di Padova
Franca Agnoli
Affiliation:
Università di Padova
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Children aged 7; 6 to 10; 0 were required to solve 2-term relational problems in order to explore developmental changes in the comprehension of Italian positive and negative comparatives. The results indicate that at first children spatially represent the two terms of the positive comparatives in a contrastive-positional way, while in the second phase children represent the terms relationally. Comprehension of negative comparatives is characterized by three phases: a contrastive-positional phase, a presuppositional phase and a relational representation. The older subjects were subsequently divided into two groups based on their previous performance, and required to solve 3-term series problems in order (a) to confirm and extend the result of the first experiment; (b) to examine whether the linguistic comprehension of the comparative was a sufficient and necessary prerequisite for solution of 3-term problems. The developmental sequence of comprehension of comparatives was confirmed. Furthermore, the results suggested how cognitive load in making transitive inferences is influenced by linguistic encoding. The data are discussed in the light of a linguistic model versus a spatial representation model. A developmental version of a spatial representation model is proposed to account for the results.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , February 1983 , pp. 203 - 222
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

[*]The authors express their deep gratitude to Diana Pien for comments on the paper. Address for correspondence: first author, Istituto di Psicologia E.E., Facoltà di Magistero, Piazza Capitaniato, 35100 Padova, Italy.
[*]

The authors express their deep gratitude to Diana Pien for comments on the paper. Address for correspondence: first author, Istituto di Psicologia E.E., Facoltà di Magistero, Piazza Capitaniato, 35100 Padova, Italy.

References

REFERENCES

Arcuri, L., Mazzocco, A. & Roncato, S. (1977). Fattori linguistici in compiti di comprensione, produzione e confronto di frasi. In Luccio, R.. & Senini, A.. (eds), I processi cognitivi. Milano: Franco Angeli.Google Scholar
Bryant, P. E. & Trabasso, T. (1971). Transitive inferences and memory in young children. Nature 232. 456–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carey, S. (1978). The child as word learner. In Halle, M.., Bresnan, J.. & Miller, G. A.. (eds), Linguistic theory and psychological reality. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1972). On the child's acquisition of antonyms in two semantic fields. JVLVB 11. 750–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1973). What's in a word? On the child's acquisition of semantics in his first language. In Moore, T. E.. (ed.), Cognitive development and the acquisition of language. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Clark, H. H. (1969). Linguistic process in deductive reasoning. PsychRev 76. 387–404.Google Scholar
Clark, H. H. (1974). Semantics and comprehension. In Sebeok, T. A.. (ed.), Current trends in linguistics, Vol. 52. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
DeSoto, C. B., London, N. & Handel, S. (1965). Social reasoning and spatial paralogic. JPersSocPsychol 2. 513–21.Google Scholar
Donaldson, M. & Balfour, G. (1968). Less is more: a study of language comprehension in children. BJPsychol 50. 461–71.Google Scholar
Ehri, L. C. (1976). Comprehension and production of adjectives and seriation. JChLang 3. 369–84.Google Scholar
D'Arcais, G. B. Flores (1970). Linguistic structure and focus of comparison in processing comparative sentences. In D'Arcais, G. B. Flores & Levelt, W. J. M. (eds), Advances in psycholinguistics. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Higgins, E. T. (1977). The varying presuppositional nature of comparatives. JPsycholingRes 6. 203–22.Google Scholar
Huttenlocher, J. & Higgins, E. T. (1971). Adjectives, comparatives, and syllogisms. PsychRev 78. 487–504.Google Scholar
Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1972). The 3-term series problem. Cognition 1. 57–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klatzky, R. L., Clark, E. V. & Macken, M. (1973). Asymmetries in the acquisition of polar adjectives: linguistic or conceptual? JExpChPsychol 16. 32–46.Google Scholar
Mosconi, G. (1966). Contributo all'analisi psicologica delle qualità espressive. Rivista di Psicologia, 337–51.Google Scholar
Palermo, D. S. (1973). More about less: a study of language comprehension. JVLVB 12. 211–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palermo, D. S. (1974). Still more about the comprehension of less. DevPsychol 50. 827–9.Google Scholar
Peisach, E. (1973). Relationship between knowledge and use of dimensional language and achievement of conservation. DevPsychol 9. 189–97.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1921). Une forme verbal de Ia comparison chez l'enfant. Archives de Psychologie 18. 141–72.Google Scholar
Riley, C. A. & Trabasso, T. (1974). Comparatives, logical structure, and encoding in a transitive inference task. JExpChPsychol 17. 197–203.Google Scholar
Trabasso, T., Riley, C. A. & Wilson, E. G. (1975). The representation of linear order and spatial strategies in reasoning: a developmental study. In Falmagne, R.. (ed.), Reasoning: representation and process. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Wales, R. S., Garman, M. A. H. & Grifliths, P. D. (1976). More or less the same: a markedly different view of children's comparative judgements in three cultures. In Wales, R. S.. & Walker, E.. (eds), New approaches to language mechanisms. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar