This cat has nine lives? Children's memory for genericity in language
This cat has nine lives? Children's memory for genericity in language
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DOI：
10.1037/0012-1649.43.5.1256
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发表时间：
2007-09-01
影响因子：
4
通讯作者：
Raman, Lakshmi
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gelman, Susan A.;Raman, Lakshmi
一般名词短语（“鸟下蛋”）对于表达抽象种类的知识很重要。作者假设共性是主旨记忆的一部分，这样小孩子就能恰当地回忆起句子是一般的还是具体的。在4个实验中，280名学龄前儿童和大学生听了一系列一般形式的句子（如“熊爬树”）或特殊形式的句子（如“这只熊爬树”），并被要求在4分钟的分心任务后回忆这些句子。所有年龄组的参与者在回忆中都能正确区分一般名词短语和特定名词短语（NP），即使他们忘记了NP形式的细节。对谓词内容（例如，“爬树”）的记忆在很大程度上不受泛型的影响，尽管对类别标签（例如，“熊”）的记忆有时对那些听到泛型措辞的句子的人更好。总的来说，这些结果表明，即使对幼儿来说，类的形式在长期记忆中也保持不变，因此可能作为构建种类知识的基础。
Generic noun phrases ("Birds lay eggs") are important for expressing knowledge about abstract kinds. The authors hypothesized that genericity would be part of gist memory, such that young children would appropriately recall whether sentences were presented as generic or specific. In 4 experiments, pre-schoolers and college students (N = 280) heard a series of sentences in either generic form (e.g., "Bears climb trees") or specific form (e.g., "This bear climbs trees") and were asked to recall the sentences following a 4-min distractor task. Participants in all age groups correctly distinguished between generic and specific noun phrases (NPs) in their recall, even when forgetting the details of the NP form. Memory for predicate content (e.g., "climb trees") was largely unaffected by genericity, although memory for category labels (e.g., "bear") was at times better for those who heard sentences with generic wording. Overall, these results suggest that generic form is maintained in long-term memory even for young children and thus may serve as the foundation for constructing knowledge about kinds.