Effects of listener feedback on the messages of kindergarten children in a referential communication task

A referential communication paradigm was employed with kindergarten children to determine the effects of systematically varied feedback following inadequate message production. Feedback conditions included three levels of verbal specificity presented either alone or in combination with visual feedback. Results indicated that kindergarten children formulated more adequate referential messages when provided with either highly specific verbal feedback or a chance to view the listener's incorrect choice of referent. The differential effectiveness of various types of feedback was discussed in terms of the role of comparison activities in the referential communication process, and implications for the communicative competency of kindergarten children were considered.