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When Do Children Exhibit a “Yes” Bias?
Author(s) -
Okanda Mako,
Itakura Shoji
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01416.x
Subject(s) - psychology , object (grammar) , preference , face (sociological concept) , cognitive bias , response bias , developmental psychology , cognition , social psychology , cognitive psychology , linguistics , philosophy , neuroscience , economics , microeconomics
This study investigated whether one hundred and thirty‐five 3‐ to 6‐year‐old children exhibit a yes bias to various yes–no questions and whether their knowledge status affects the production of a yes bias. Three‐year‐olds exhibited a yes bias to all yes–no questions such as preference‐object and knowledge‐object questions pertaining to objects, and knowledge‐face questions pertaining to facial expressions. Four‐year‐olds tended to say “yes” only to knowledge‐object questions. Five‐year‐olds did not show any strong response tendency. Six‐year‐olds exhibited a nay‐saying bias to knowledge‐face questions. Also, 3‐year‐olds could indicate the correct option when asked questions with 2 response options. It suggested that 3‐year‐olds tended to inappropriately say “yes” to yes–no questions, although they knew the answers to the questions. The mechanism of a yes bias was discussed.