Cognitive bias approach to the acquisition of disjunction

Abstract

While most adults tend to interpret disjunctive statements like ‘A or B’ exclusively, some children (age 3-5/6) have a conjunctive interpretation, and some an inclusive interpretation. We propose that the behaviour of the conjunctive children can be explained by the lack of two abilities: 1. The ability to engage with models that verify sentences by virtue of an empty witness set. 2. The ability to entertain two alternative ways the world can be in parallel. We argue against theories explaining this behaviour in terms of alternative-based reasoning. In particular, our theory predicts that the order of acquisition of the meaning of disjunction starts with the conjunctive interpretation, followed by inclusive and exclusive interpretations, while alternative-based theories predict that children acquire the inclusive reading first. We relate our proposal to the acquisition of modal concepts.