children in the Definition condition provided significantly more ''semantic ' properties than
the children in the Lexical contrast condition in the immediate (Wilcoxon: Z=2.1, p<.05) and
the Delayed post tests (Wilcoxon: Z=2.2, p<.05). Furthermore, during the Delayed post test,
there was a trend for the children in the Definition condition to provide more “semantic"
properties than the children in the Inference and Analogy condition. Analysis within the
semantic properties revealed that the children provided significantly more “basic level” than
''superordinate leveΓ words when they defined the target word in the immediate (Wilcoxon:
Z=6.7, p<.0000) and delayed post tests (Wilcoxon: Z=6.1, p<.0000).

Children in the Analogy condition also provided more “functional properties" than children
in the other conditions during the immediate post test (see Appendix 5.16). During the
Delayed post test children in the Inference and Analogy conditions provided more
“functional properties” than children from the other conditions.The differences were
significant only for the Delayed post test (Kruskal-Wallis, I-Way ANOVA: X²= 8.05, df=3,
p<.05). Post hoc analysis revealed that children in the Inference and Analogy condition
provided more “functional properties” than the children in the Definition condition
(Wilcoxon: Z=2.5, p<.05) and (Wilcoxon: Z=2.2, p<.05).

Key findings from the deflnition task

To what extent does children ^,s performance on the definition task differ by age ?

• Significant correlations were found between children’s age and their performance on
the definition task for both post tests. The same pattern was evident even when
children’s vocabulary and memory scores were controlled for.

• The older children performed better than the younger ones. Significant differences
were found for both post tests. Particularly, the 6- and 5 year-olds performed
significantly better than the 4 year-olds. Also, the 6 year-olds performed significantly
better than the 5 year-olds. The same pattern was also found within each linguistic
condition for both post tests.

142

<<   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   >>

More intriguing information