Supplemental Appendix. When Do Children Understand "Opposite"? (Phillips & Pexman, 2015)

Purpose The aims of the present research were to determine (a) the age at which children with typical development understand the concept of opposite, (b) whether this is related to other cognitive abilities or experiences, and (c) whether there is early implicit understanding of the concept.

Method Children (N = 204) between 3 and 5 years of age were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 experimental conditions in a novel opposite task. Children's language and working memory skills were assessed, and parents provided information about children's access to learning materials about opposites.

Results In the opposite task, 4- and 5-year-olds, but not 3-year-olds, demonstrated acquisition of the concept of opposite. Children demonstrated this understanding only when asked for the "opposite" one, suggesting that antonymy was not made salient by stimulus properties alone. Children's accuracy was not significantly related to their language or working memory skills, to their child care experience, or to whether parents reported having books or games about opposites or playing opposite word games with children. Eye gaze analyses provided no evidence for early implicit understanding of the concept of opposite.

Conclusion Children with typical development have a concept of opposite by 4 years of age.

研究目的 本研究的目的是确定：（a）典型发展儿童理解对立概念的时间；（b）这一能力是否与其他认知能力或经验相关联；（c）是否存在对立概念早期无意识的认知。研究方法 在一项新颖的对立任务中，将204名3至5岁的儿童随机分配到3个实验条件之一。评估了儿童的言语和操作记忆技能，家长提供了有关儿童接触对立概念学习材料的详细信息。研究结果 在对立任务中，4岁和5岁的儿童，而非3岁的儿童，表现出了对立概念的理解。只有当要求儿童寻找‘对立面’时，他们才表现出这种理解，这表明对立关系并非仅由刺激属性引起。儿童的准确率与他们的言语或操作记忆技能、育儿经验，或家长报告的书籍或游戏是否涉及对立概念，或与儿童玩对立词汇游戏的情况无关。眼动分析并未提供对立概念早期无意识认知的证据。研究结论 典型发展的儿童在4岁时已具备对立概念。