linguistic condition. Significant differences were found for the Lexical contrast
condition.
Error Analysis
• Children in their definitions focused on the following properties:(a) Perceptual; (b)
Functional;(c )Semantic.All the children provided less ''perceptual" than “functional”
and “semantic” properties for both post tests. Furthermore, they also provided
significantly more “semantic” than “functional” properties for both post tests. The
same pattern was evident within each age group. Also, the older the children they
were, the more semantic properties they used in their definitions.
• Children in the Definition condition provided more “semantic” properties than those
in the other Conditions-Children in the Analogy condition also provided more
“functional” properties than those in the other conditions during the immediate post
test, while in the delayed post test, children in the Inference and Analogy conditions
provided more “functional” properties than children in the other conditions. The
differences were significant only for the delayed post test.
• Analysis within the semantic properties revealed that the children provided
significantly more “basic level” than “superordinate level” words when they defined
the target words at both post tests.
Concluding remarks for the deflnition task
► Analysis of the Definition task demonstrated age differences with the 5-and 6 year-
olds performing better than the 4 year-olds. This pattern was also evident within each
linguistic condition. Analysis by linguistic condition demonstrated that the children
in the Inference and Definition condition performed better in the definition task than
children in the other conditions. No significant differences between children’s
performance in the immediate and delayed post test were found. Also, no differences
in their performance were found by their existing vocabulary. Lastly, it was found
that children with high phonological memory performed significantly better than
children with low phonological memory at both post tests. The same pattern was
evident within each age group and linguistic condition.