Reference-Set Computation in Children: Mandarin-Speaking Children’s Pronoun Interpretation in Avoid Pronoun Contexts

Abstract

Reinhart’s (2004, 2006) theory predicts that children should perform around chance on tasks involving reference-set computation due to their working memory limitations. The purpose of this article is to test her theory against acquisition data from a previously unexplored area of reference-set computation. We present an experiment designed to examine Mandarin-speaking children’s pronoun interpretation in contexts where the Avoid Pronoun Principle is operative. Since the computation of the Avoid Pronoun Principle requires reference-set computation, children are expected to show difficulty resolving pronouns in such contexts. This prediction was confirmed in our experiment, where otherwise linguistically competent 5-year-olds performed around chance when confronted with the need to compute the Avoid Pronoun Principle. Moreover, analysis of individual data suggests that their nonadultlike performance is due not to their lack of the relevant knowledge but to their lack of capacity to process the required computation.