Mental development of ‘meanings' related to scripts: ‘Dining' script as an example

The purpose here is to investigate how the process of relating ‘meanings' to scripts is influenced by the developmental changes of concepts about these activities, with an example of ‘dining'. Based on previous studies that the concept of ‘dining' develops from physiological function orientation to social function orientation, second, fourth, and sixth graders, and college students were asked to plan ‘dining' with a physiological goal or a social one. The results are as follows. (1) Generated plans became more connected with goals developmentally in both social and physiological context. (2) Second graders who attached much importance to physiological function of ‘dining' were apt to generate plans with physiological meanings even in social goal context.