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Preschoolers Use Intentional and Pedagogical Cues to Guide Inductive Inferences and Exploration
Author(s) -
Butler Lucas P.,
Markman Ellen M.
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.1467-8624.2012.01775.x
Subject(s) - generalizability theory , psychology , generalization , property (philosophy) , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , concept learning , inductive reasoning , child development , artificial intelligence , computer science , epistemology , philosophy
Children are judicious social learners. They may be particularly sensitive to communicative actions done pedagogically for their benefit, as such actions may mark important, generalizable information. Three experiments ( N = 224) found striking differences in preschoolers’ inductive generalization and exploration of a novel functional property, depending on whether identical evidence for the property was produced accidentally, intentionally, or pedagogically and communicatively. Results also revealed that although 4‐year‐olds reserved strong generalizations for a property that is pedagogically demonstrated, 3‐year‐olds made such inferences when it was produced either intentionally or pedagogically. These findings suggest that by age 4 children assess whether evidence is produced for their benefit in gauging generalizability, giving them a powerful tool for acquiring important kind‐relevant, generic knowledge.