PSY274H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Spoken Language, Manual Communication, Iconicity
Document Summary
Important to think of the contrast between what is iconic and symbolic. More effective at signalling (do not have to look for info to be received) Greater capacity to communicate (ex. at night) Given the fact that experience with a particular modality may bias sensitive, best strategy to look at young children. Compared 18 and 24 month old hearing children. Tested extent to which these children understand that these signal have a referential function. Tested degree to which children assume unfamiliar spoken word vs. arbitrary gesture refers to something. Question: is there some natural tendency to use. Novel word condition: children shown an object (never seen before) and made association with unfamiliar spoken words and then were tasked to identify the object among other objects. Gesture condition: same procedure but unfamiliar word replaced with an arbitrary gesture. 18-month olds: assumes either spoken word or gesture could refer to something; more liberal.
