1.4.1. Vocabulary comprehension task
This task was modeled on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test(Dunn &Dunn,2007) andsimilar
assessments. The pictures used for this task were downloaded from publicly available sources on the
Internet. They were not taken from the books in order to better assess children’s generalization of the
words. With in each item,the pictures were matched for perceptual features (e.g.,all three pictures
were photographs,never two photograph sand a line drawing).
All of the Target words for each theme(20)an all of the Control words for each theme were
included on the Comprehension task.This task included 6ofthe8 Exposure words in the Realistic
theme and 8ofthe9 Exposure words in the Fantastical theme. Not all of the Exposure words were
presented because some words were too difficult to depict (e.g.,“accidentally”);the words that were
not included on this task were included on the Production task. In addition,4training item sand4
filler it ems were included, the latter spread randomly through out the task.These items were ones that
children would almost certainly know(e.g.,“sleeping”),hence were used to in troduce the task or to
give children a chance to experience success and receive positive feedback during the task.
To administer this task,an experimenter asked children to choose a target from among three
pictures, which were presented on a printed page in a binder