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Colour-name versus shape-name learning in young children*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Marc H. Bornstein
Marc H. Bornstein
Affiliation:
New York University
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Abstract

Very young children perceive colour normally and possess the concept of colour, but it has been widely reported, on the basis of informal observation or normative assessment, that beginning colour naming is confused and that accurate and consistent colour naming is relatively retarded developmentally. A neutral test was devised to compare experimentally 3-year-olds' abilities to make colour-to-name versus shape-to-name associations. Children learned colour-label associates significantly more slowly than matched shape-label associates, and they committed more errors with colours than with shapes during learning. The design of this study eliminates several explanations often proposed to explicate retarded colour naming, including relative perceptual salience, differential experience, and immature cognitive development, and, in their stead, opens the possibility that the difficulty underlying beginning colour naming may reflect specific word-to-colour associations.

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Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , June 1985 , pp. 387 - 393
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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