Work

Situation models support referential prediction at 36 months of age.

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: = 115) did the same, using story-provided information to predict which character could plausibly be mentioned next. In critical sentences, such as "She asked the goose with the boots to play with her," children treated "the goose" as unambiguous even in a story with two geese, looking toward the target animal before disambiguating information arrived if one goose was described as having left the scene earlier in the story. Success in this task implies predictive use of a situation model to infer reference to a still-present character. Individual differences in language skills predicted inference generation, and exploratory analyses suggested children with language delay did not generate these inferences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Source: Developmental Psychology

DOI: 10.1037/dev0002277

Authors: Amanda Rose Yuile, Cynthia Fisher, Arielle Borovsky

Institutions: Purdue University West Lafayette, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Language: English

Topic: Language Development and Disorders

Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

Awards: G9000369863, Lexico-semantic abilities in early language growth and delay