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The Development of Children’s Ability to Fill the Gaps in Their Knowledge by Consulting Experts
Author(s) -
Aguiar Naomi R.,
Stoess Caryn J.,
Taylor Marjorie
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.1467-8624.2012.01782.x
Subject(s) - psychology , test (biology) , incentive , knowledge level , applied psychology , mathematics education , paleontology , economics , biology , microeconomics
This research investigated children’s ability to recognize gaps in their knowledge and seek missing information from appropriate informants. In Experiment 1, forty‐five 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds were adept in assigning questions from 3 domains (medicine, firefighting, and farming) to corresponding experts (doctor, firefighter, or farmer). However, when given the options of answering the same questions themselves or assigning them to an expert (Experiment 2), only 6‐year‐olds were consistently able to recognize when they did not know answers and then assign test questions correctly. Four‐ and 5‐year‐olds tended to overestimate their own knowledge or assign questions to the wrong expert. This result was replicated in Experiment 3, in which 5‐year‐olds were given incentives for correct answers.