The Neural Development of Pragmatic Inference-Making in Natural Discourse

Autor/inn/en	Schwartz, Flora; Epinat-Duclos, Justine; Noveck, Ira; Prado, Jérôme
Titel	The Neural Development of Pragmatic Inference-Making in Natural Discourse
Quelle	In: Developmental Science, 21 (2018) 6, (15 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1467-7687
DOI	10.1111/desc.12678
Schlagwörter	Neurological Organization; Brain; Inferences; Cognitive Structures; Theory of Mind; Cognitive Processes; Cognitive Development; Thinking Skills; Child Development; Brain Hemisphere Functions; Developmental Stages + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Gehirn; Inference; Inferenz; Cognitive structure; Kognitive Struktur; Cognitive process; Kognitiver Prozess; Kognitive Entwicklung; Denkfähigkeit; Kindesentwicklung
Abstract	Older interlocutors are more likely than younger ones to make pragmatic inferences, that is, inferences that go beyond the linguistically encoded meaning of a sentence. Here we ask whether pragmatic development is associated with increased activity in brain structures associated with inference-making or in those associated with Theory of Mind. We employed a reading task that presents vignettes in one of two versions, one of which is expected to prompt more pragmatic processing. Both versions present a major premise containing three possibilities (e.g., Xavier is considering Thursday, Friday or Saturday for inviting his girlfriend out). In the "Fully-Deductive" (control) condition, the major premise is followed by two disjunction-elimination premises through two separate lines (one indicating that Saturday is not convenient and another saying that Thursday is not convenient); this is followed by a valid conclusion (e.g., "I'll reserve Friday"). In the "Implicated-Premise" condition, the first disjunction-elimination premise is followed by a second similar one that eliminates the same disjunction (e.g., both lines explain why Saturday is not convenient). In this condition, readers may pragmatically enrich the conclusion (i.e., "I'll reserve Friday" pragmatically implicates that "Xavier is also eliminating Thursday from consideration"). Reading times in Experiment 1 showed that processing the speaker's conclusion in the "Implicated-Premise" condition becomes increasingly more effort-demanding as readers reach adolescence. Experiment 2 showed that this developmental pattern is related to age-related increases in fMRI activity in fronto-parietal regions typically involved in inference-making processes. We found no evidence indicating age effects related to Theory of Mind areas. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01