Expression of Owner-Owned Relationships among Holophrastic 14- to 32-Month-Old Children

Abstract

RODGON, MARIS MONITZ, and RASHMAN, SUE E. Expression of Owner-Owned Relationships among Holophrastic 14to 32-Month-Old Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1976, 47, 1219-1222. 24 children age 14 to 32 months were shown a series of photographs of familiar and unfamiliar objects and persons in order to determine the frequency of owner naming and other expressions of possession. Only 7 subjects correctly named the owner of a pictured familiar object. Owner naming occurred mainly in response to pictures of the child's parent's possessions. 'Other indicators of possession were used, but by different children or in different situations. Children who used any indicator of possession were more successful on an object permanence task than were those who did not. Object naming was a much more frequent phenomenon than owner naming, but owner namers tended not to name objects whose owners were unknown to them.