Higher-Order Logical Reasoning in Preschool Children: Evidence from Intonation and Quantifier Scope.

Open research Europe Pub Date : 2025-02-03 eCollection Date: 2025-01-01 DOI:10.12688/openreseurope.18312.1
Uli Sauerland, Ayaka Sugawara, Kazuko Yatsushiro
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Logical reasoning in young children is difficult to ascertain experimentally even for single propositional operators. We present a novel argument that four- and five-year old children are capable of reasoning with complex representations containing multiple logical operators.

Methods: The argument is based on an interaction between sentence interpretation and intonation. This interaction depends on the computation of logical inferences between the sentence uttered and possible alternative utterances containing proportional generalized quantifiers, and how adults arrive at different interpretations is well understood. The account that explains the interaction predicts that a specific intonation will disambiguate scopal interpretation in sentences with a negation and a universal quantifier, but not in sentences involving two quantifiers.

Results: We show that preschool children speaking German are sensitive to the interaction between logical scope of expressions and intonation in the same way as adult speakers.

Conclusion: This result entails that preschool children can carry out logical reasoning within a higher order logic.

学龄前儿童的高阶逻辑推理:来自语调和量词范围的证据。
背景:幼儿的逻辑推理即使对于单个命题运算符也很难通过实验来确定。我们提出了一个新颖的论点,即四岁和五岁的儿童能够用包含多个逻辑运算符的复杂表示进行推理。方法:基于句子解释和语调的相互作用进行论证。这种相互作用取决于所发出的句子和包含比例广义量词的可能替代话语之间的逻辑推理计算,以及成年人如何达到不同的解释是很容易理解的。解释这种相互作用的理论预测,特定的语调会在带有否定和通用量词的句子中消除范围解释的歧义,但在包含两个量词的句子中则不会。结果:学龄前德语儿童对表情逻辑范围与语调之间的相互作用具有与成人相同的敏感性。结论:这一结果表明学龄前儿童能够在高阶逻辑中进行逻辑推理。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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