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comparison of typicality judgments of learning-disabled and nonlearning-disabled children

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Date Issued:
1991
Summary:
Typicality judgments refer to the extent to which items are thought to be typical of their language categories. For example, an apple is a typical fruit, whereas a kiwi is an atypical one. Typicality judgments help reveal a person's level of word knowledge and concept development. The theory of category prototypes (Posner, 1969) gave rise to the assessment of the typicality judgments of children and adults. The two main purposes of this study were to provide typicality norms for learning disabled (LD) children, and to clarify the nature of the differences between learning disabled and nondisabled (NLD) students regarding their word knowledge and categorization skills. A total of 210 subjects participated in the study; 180 were public school children (grades 2, 4, 6) from Palm Beach County, Florida. Half of these students attended part-time classes for the learning disabled while the other half were enrolled in regular classrooms. All children had achieved IQs in the average range of intelligence. The remainder of the subjects (30) were adult college students at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. All subjects were asked to determine whether each of 125 words were category members, and if they were, how well each one exemplified the particular category in question. Categories included birds, clothing, vegetables, fruit, and four-footed animals. Results revealed that the LD children knew the meanings of fewer category items, included fewer appropriate words as category items, and were less adultlike in their rankings of words that were included as category members. Although both LD and NLD children's word rankings became more adultlike with age, the LD children's pattern of progression differed. For LD children, typicality ratings became significantly more adultlike between grades four and six, whereas the NLD subjects demonstrated significantly improved ratings between grades two and four. This different pattern illustrated a developmental lag in word knowledge for the LD children.
Title: A comparison of typicality judgments of learning-disabled and nonlearning-disabled children.
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Name(s): Willits, Paula P.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree Grantor
Smiley, Lydia R., Thesis Advisor
Taylor, Ronald L., Thesis Advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1991
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 145 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Typicality judgments refer to the extent to which items are thought to be typical of their language categories. For example, an apple is a typical fruit, whereas a kiwi is an atypical one. Typicality judgments help reveal a person's level of word knowledge and concept development. The theory of category prototypes (Posner, 1969) gave rise to the assessment of the typicality judgments of children and adults. The two main purposes of this study were to provide typicality norms for learning disabled (LD) children, and to clarify the nature of the differences between learning disabled and nondisabled (NLD) students regarding their word knowledge and categorization skills. A total of 210 subjects participated in the study; 180 were public school children (grades 2, 4, 6) from Palm Beach County, Florida. Half of these students attended part-time classes for the learning disabled while the other half were enrolled in regular classrooms. All children had achieved IQs in the average range of intelligence. The remainder of the subjects (30) were adult college students at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. All subjects were asked to determine whether each of 125 words were category members, and if they were, how well each one exemplified the particular category in question. Categories included birds, clothing, vegetables, fruit, and four-footed animals. Results revealed that the LD children knew the meanings of fewer category items, included fewer appropriate words as category items, and were less adultlike in their rankings of words that were included as category members. Although both LD and NLD children's word rankings became more adultlike with age, the LD children's pattern of progression differed. For LD children, typicality ratings became significantly more adultlike between grades four and six, whereas the NLD subjects demonstrated significantly improved ratings between grades two and four. This different pattern illustrated a developmental lag in word knowledge for the LD children.
Identifier: 12279 (digitool), FADT12279 (IID), fau:9182 (fedora)
Note(s): Thesis (Ed.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1991.
Subject(s): Categorization (Psychology) in children
Learning disabled children--Education--Language
Children--Language
Cognition in children
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12279
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.