Effect of semantic redundancy on children's identification of verbal concepts.

Abstract

Investigated the effects of cue-oriented instructions, redundancy, and attribute saliency on concept identification in a verbal task. Attributes were defined as the 3 salient dimensions of semantic meaning. Ss were 130 4th-6th grade children. Increased cue saliency, provided through instructions limiting the number of attributes (semantic dimensions) to be identified, facilitated performance. The effects of redundancy and attribute saliency were found within the cue-oriented groups. Concepts were identified more easily in lists comprised of words with 3 relevant attributes than in lists comprised of words with 1 or 2 relevant attributes, and (2) in lists where the evaluative dimension was relevant. It is concluded that saliency of cues affected what is discriminated, and degree of complexity made concept identification less ambiguous. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)