Laura Barca Chiara De Livio Valentina Rossi Anna M. Borghi

Pacifier overuse and the processing of abstract, concrete, and metaphorical sentences in school-age children

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Abstract

Previous studies suggest a relationship between prolonged pacifier use (beyond three years of age) and linguistic processing later in life, slowing the processing of abstract words in school-age children. Here, we tested whether prolonged pacifier use interferes with sentence processing. Italian-speaking children with a different history of pacifier use (as measured by a parental questionnaire) performed an online task categorizing abstract, concrete, and metaphorical sentences auditorially presented. Abstract sentences tended to be categorized more slowly with increasing months of pacifier use; whereas a facilitation effect was observed for metaphorical sentences. The results are compatible with greater involvement of the linguistic-motor system in the processing of abstract concepts.

Keywords

  • prolonged pacifier use
  • abstract sentences
  • metaphorical sentences
  • semantic categorization
  • parental sense of competence

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