The relation between the complexity heuristic, metalinguistic and linguistic abilities, in the acquisition of novel word meanings

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine firstly, whether young children are able to use a complexity heuristic as a constraint on hypotheses about novel word meanings; and secondly, to explore how this ability relates to the development of other linguistic and metalinguistic abilities, particularly reading. A series of three studies were conducted to examine these abilities and relations in children aged between 4 1/2 and 7 1/2 years. Fifty-seven children from six preschools in the Wellington region participated in the first stage of this study; and 52 were retested in a second stage of this study approximately one year later in primary school. A third study was conducted to assess these same abilities and relations in a separate and slightly older sample of children. In each of the three studies a battery of individual assessments were made including baseline measures of general nonverbal and verbal intelligence for each subject sample; measures of the complexity heuristic comprising the picture-word game; and measures of metalinguistic ability, including rhyming, segmentation and print awareness tasks; and reading ability. Results from the three studies showed that generally children in this age group were unable to make use of a complexity heuristic in the acquisition of novel word meanings, at least as measured by the picture-word game; and secondly, there was no evidence to support a relation between the ability to use this heuristic and the development of metalinguistic abilities including reading. Some evidence for a weak but positive association between the ability to use a complexity heuristic and general cognitive ability was obtained. Results provide no evidence for the existence of a complexity heuristic as a constraint on hypotheses about novel word meanings in young children. Rather, they suggest that if the picture-word game does comprise metalinguistic elements, it may be that young children lack sufficient cognitive ability to deal with other analogical reasoning components inherent in it; alternatively, children may need a more advanced level of both metalinguistic and cognitive ability for the emergence of this heuristic, consistent with development occurring later in middle childhood.