Less Is More: A Study of Language Comprehension in Children

A task devised to study comprehension of the words ‘more’ and ‘less’ was given to a group of 15 children aged between 3:5 yr. and 4:1 yr. Another task, designed to assess comprehension of ‘less’ without reference to ‘more’, was given to the same group approximately 6 months later. The main finding (which holds for both occasions) is that only one subject gave consistently correct responses to ‘less’. For the others it seemed that ‘less’ remained largely undifferentiated from ‘more’. The children showed a marked tendency to make the same response, irrespective of which of the two words was used in the instruction. ‘More’ was dominant as the interpretation given to the undifferentiated pair.