Question

The study by Linda Smith et al. on early language development supports a theory that children engage in ______ thinking when learning new words: when toddlers were shown two objects and asked to identify the “blicket,” they systematically looked at the unfamiliar object instead of the familiar one, suggesting they infer meaning through elimination and comparison.


2

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A
analogical

B
counterfactual

C
heuristic

D
associative

Answer 1

C — heuristic.

The toddlers’ behavior reflects a rule-of-thumb (e.g., the mutual-exclusivity heuristic) of eliminating the labeled/familiar object to infer that a new word names the unfamiliar object. It’s not counterfactual thinking, and it’s distinct from simple associative learning; analogical thinking would require mapping relational similarities rather than this elimination strategy.