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Beyond Semantic Accuracy: Preschoolers Evaluate a Speaker’s Reasons
Author(s) -
Koenig Melissa A.
Publication year - 2012
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.1467-8624.2012.01742.x
Subject(s) - psychology , inference , quality (philosophy) , theory of mind , developmental psychology , social psychology , cognitive psychology , cognition , artificial intelligence , epistemology , philosophy , neuroscience , computer science
Children’s sensitivity to the quality of epistemic reasons and their selective trust in the more reasonable of 2 informants was investigated in 2 experiments. Three‐, 4‐, and 5‐year‐old children ( N = 90) were presented with speakers who stated different kinds of evidence for what they believed. Experiment 1 showed that children of all age groups appropriately judged looking, reliable testimony, and inference as better reasons for belief than pretense, guessing, and desiring. Experiment 2 showed that 3‐ and 4‐year‐old children preferred to seek and accept new information from a speaker who was previously judged to use the “best” way of thinking. The findings demonstrate that children distinguish certain good from bad reasons and prefer to learn from those who showcased good reasoning in the past.