The Young Child's Explanations of Communication Failure: A Re-Interpretation of Results

Abstract

Two dolls were made to play a game in which one, the speaker, described one of a set of drawings so that the other, the listener, could pick the matching one from an identical set. The dolls took turns as speaker and listener. The children sat by one doll. When communication failed, the child was asked to ascribe blame to the listener and/or speaker and to say why. All ten children who blamed the listener when communication failed because the message applied to more than one card, located the fault with the speaker when the message referred uniquely to a card other than that selected by the speaker. Their failure to locate blame with the speaker under the other condition cannot therefore be attributed to a total lack of understanding of the role of the message in communication failure.