A Semantic Congruity Effect in Children's Acquisition of High and Low

Brigette Oliver Ryalls; Emily Winslow; Linda B. Smith

doi:10.1006/jmla.1998.2594

A Semantic Congruity Effect in Children's Acquisition of High and Low

Brigette Oliver Ryalls, Emily Winslow, Linda B. Smith

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Semantic Congruity Effect (SCE) is the finding that children and adults asked to compare pairs of objects drawn from a series perform better when the direction of comparison coincides with the location of the objects in the series. Experiment 1 confirmed that this effect is due to an understanding of the dimension words involved and not to general perceptual strategies by varying the words used to ask about the same stimuli (i.e.:higher/lowervsover/under). Experiment 2 examined children's understanding ofhigher/lowerand found that the SCE could be reduced or enhanced by altering the stimulus context. Theoretical explanations are discussed.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	543-557
Number of pages	15
Journal	Journal of Memory and Language
Volume	39
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1998.2594
State	Published - Nov 1998
Externally published	Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
Language and Linguistics
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Linguistics and Language
Artificial Intelligence

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10.1006/jmla.1998.2594

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title = "A Semantic Congruity Effect in Children's Acquisition of High and Low",

abstract = "The Semantic Congruity Effect (SCE) is the finding that children and adults asked to compare pairs of objects drawn from a series perform better when the direction of comparison coincides with the location of the objects in the series. Experiment 1 confirmed that this effect is due to an understanding of the dimension words involved and not to general perceptual strategies by varying the words used to ask about the same stimuli (i.e.:higher/lowervsover/under). Experiment 2 examined children's understanding ofhigher/lowerand found that the SCE could be reduced or enhanced by altering the stimulus context. Theoretical explanations are discussed.",

author = "Ryalls, {Brigette Oliver} and Emily Winslow and Smith, {Linda B.}",

note = "Funding Information: The authors thank William Petrusic and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Portions of this research were presented at the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, New Orleans, LA, 1993. The completion of this research was supported in part by PHS Grant 1 F31 MH10403-01 SRCM-C.",

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doi = "10.1006/jmla.1998.2594",

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AU - Winslow, Emily

AU - Smith, Linda B.

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AB - The Semantic Congruity Effect (SCE) is the finding that children and adults asked to compare pairs of objects drawn from a series perform better when the direction of comparison coincides with the location of the objects in the series. Experiment 1 confirmed that this effect is due to an understanding of the dimension words involved and not to general perceptual strategies by varying the words used to ask about the same stimuli (i.e.:higher/lowervsover/under). Experiment 2 examined children's understanding ofhigher/lowerand found that the SCE could be reduced or enhanced by altering the stimulus context. Theoretical explanations are discussed.

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A Semantic Congruity Effect in Children's Acquisition of High and Low

Abstract

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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