Influence of comparison training on children's referential communication.

Assessed whether teaching children to engage in comparison activity improves their referential communication performance. In contrast to previous communication training studies, the training focused on a specifiable unitary skill, employed a teaching procedure with known effectiveness, and controlled for practice and other familiarity effects. Two training experiments with 3rd- and 4th-grade children were conducted. Results from Exp I indicate that 33 trained Ss improved more than 32 control Ss in communication accuracy. Furthermore, gains were maintained at the 1-mo follow-up. Exp II (20 undergraduates; 43 children) examined training effects on message appraisal as well as message production. Results indicate significant training effects on both tasks. Results demonstrate that inadequate comparison processing contributes to children's poor communication performance. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)