Resumen de Social Pragmatics: Preschoolers Rely on Commonsense Psychology to Resolve Referential Underspecification
Julian Jara-Ettinger, Sammy Floyd, Holly Huey, Joshua B. Tenenbaum, Laura E. Schulz
Four experiments show that 4- and 5-year-olds (total N = 112) can identify the referent of underdetermined utterances through their Naïve Utility Calculus?an intuitive theory of people?s behavior structured around an assumption that agents maximize utilities. In Experiments 1?2, a puppet asked for help without specifying to whom she was talking (?Can you help me??). In Experiments 3?4, a puppet asked the child to pass an object without specifying what she wanted (?Can you pass me that one??). Children?s responses suggest that they considered cost trade-offs between the members in the interaction. These findings add to a body of work showing that reference resolution is informed by commonsense psychology from early in childhood.
