During narration, speakers constantly choose appropriate referential forms (nominals or pronominals). Children may engage in this reference marking differently than adults. Discourse- or listener-oriented approaches make different predictions about referential behaviour in cognitively demanding situations: the first predicts a higher number of nominals; the second, a higher number of pronominals. The current study explores referential forms chosen by 50 children (6;0–6;11) and 50 adults, all monolingual speakers of Croatian, under the increased cognitive load of having to narrate a story from picture stimuli involving three characters of one or different genders. Generally, adults produce more referential expressions in their narratives. For both story types, children and adults use nominals more often than pronominals, children use a higher percentage of nominals than adults, and both groups use nouns to introduce and re-introduce characters. When maintaining characters in the narrative, both groups use more nouns and fewer pronouns in the story with characters of one gender, whereas they use fewer nouns and more pronouns in the story with characters of different genders. These findings suggest that Croatian monolingual adults and children more often use nominals for referencing in cognitively demanding stories, consistent with the discourse-oriented approach.

在旁白中，演讲者不断选择适当的参照形式（名词或代词）。儿童使用此参考标记的方式可能与成人不同。面向话语或听众的方法对在认知要求较高的情况下的指称行为做出不同的预测：第一个预测较高的名词数量；第二个预测较高的名词数量。第二，更多的代词。当前的研究探索了50名儿童（6; 0–6; 11）和50名成年人（都是克罗地亚语的母语）所选择的参照形式，这是因为他们不得不从涉及三个或多个不同角色的图片刺激中叙述故事的认知负担越来越大性别。通常，成年人在其叙述中会产生更多的参照性表达。对于这两种故事类型，儿童和成人使用名词的比例要高于名词，儿童使用的名词比例要比成人高，两组都使用名词来引入和重新引入字符。当在叙事中保留人物时，两组在具有一个性别角色的故事中使用更多的名词和更少的代词，而在故事中使用不同性别的角色使用较少的名词和更多代词。这些发现表明，克罗地亚的单语成人和儿童会更多地使用名词来指代对认知要求较高的故事，这与面向话语的方法是一致的。而他们在故事中使用较少的名词和更多的代词，却带有不同性别的角色。这些发现表明，克罗地亚的单语成人和儿童会更多地使用名词来指代对认知要求较高的故事，这与面向语言的方法是一致的。而他们在故事中使用较少的名词和更多的代词，却带有不同性别的角色。这些发现表明，克罗地亚的单语成人和儿童会更多地使用名词来指代对认知要求较高的故事，这与面向语言的方法是一致的。