Some Reasons for the Occurrence and Eventual Correction of Children's Naming Errors

Abstract

MERRIMAN, WILLIAM E. Some Reasons for the Occurrence and Eventual Correction of Children's Naming Errors. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1986, 57, 942-952. Some possible reasons for the occurrence and eventual correction of children's naming errors were evaluated in an experiment in which 21/2-, 4-, and 6-year-olds learned 2 artificial object names in succession. The 21/2-year-olds generalized names more broadly in reception than did the older children, primarily because of a greater tendency to select objects lacking a property identified in training as being defining. The compatibility of this result with those of previous developmental studies of name and category generalization is discussed. Support for the claim that the acquisition of new names can compel the correction of overextensions was obtained for the older children but not for the 21/2-year-olds. Additional evidence suggested that the 21/2-year-olds found it difficult to coordinate correction of an old name with construction of a contrastive reference for a new name. Input highlighting a common property of the referents of a new and old name tended to reduce children's tendency to correct the old name and tended to increase their tendency to treat the names as synonyms. Input highlighting a unique property of the new name's referent did not affect children's responses.