between cognitive complexity and the way children adapted their way of speaking to what they perceived as the interpretive needs of others. How children "construe" a social situation, in this view, determines their behavior within it. It was therefore the purpose of Delia and Clark to "ascertain whether children differing in age and construct system complexity differ in their ability to spontaneously construe differences in the psychological states of listeners and to use those construals in making communicative choices" (3:329). They wanted to see whether there was a causal relationship between the children's interpretation of the needs of their listener(s) and the children's communication strategies with listeners. More specifically, they wanted to see whether the children would seek to control the focus of communication (i.e., listener response/behavior) as a result.
Delia and Clark first coded cognitive complexity by interviewing the children regar
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