A choice of domain of judgment in acquisition of universal quantifier expressions

Abstract

The present paper examined whether 3-5 year old children can answer correctly to universal quantifier expressions which refer to elements in front of them. In Experiment 1, likely and unlikely situations, manipulated by entity color relation (e. g., likely: red flower, unlikely: black moon), were presented. The result showed that a large number of 4-5 year old children could not affirm the true but unlikely situations. In Experiment 2, the elements which did not have any typical color were used in the likely situations. Children made incorrect judgment equally to both likely and unlikely situations. However, in Experiment 3, those children were able to affirm or negate situations in front of them correctly, if the elements were novel to them. These results indicate that in true-false judgment for universal quantifier expressions, 4-5 year old children tend to base their judgment on their knowledge rather than situations just in front of them. This phenomenon is discussed from the point of view of intellectual realism.