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Origins of verbal logic: spontaneous denials by two- and three-year olds*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Roy D. Pea
Roy D. Pea
Affiliation:
Clark University, Heinz Werner Institute of Developmental Psychology
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Abstract

Children two to three years of age can spontaneously correct false statements and affirm true ones in a modified sentence verification paradigm. Such performances imply that very young children display knowledge of the rules of correspondence between language and reality (truth conditions) which are central to propositional logic, at an age when logical development in cognition has not been previously acknowledged.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , October 1982 , pp. 597 - 626
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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Footnotes

[*]

This work derives from part of an unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Oxford, England. I especially thank Jerome S. Bruner, John Churcher, Michael Scaife, Susan Sugarman, and Cathi Urwin for advice and encouragement during the project, Kristine MacKain and Susan Sugarman for criticisms of an early version of this paper, and the children and mothers who patiently participated in the study. The research was supported by The Rhodes Trust, Oxford, and the writing by NIMH Traineeship 15125. Address for correspondence: Clark University, Heinz Werner Institute of Developmental Psychology, Worcester, MA 01610, U.S.A.

References

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