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Escape From Metaignorance: How Children Develop an Understanding of Their Own Lack of Knowledge
Author(s) -
Rohwer Michael,
Kloo Daniela,
Perner Josef
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.1467-8624.2012.01830.x
Subject(s) - ignorance , psychology , task (project management) , object (grammar) , developmental psychology , knowledge level , cognitive psychology , cognitive development , theory of mind , concept learning , cognition , epistemology , mathematics education , artificial intelligence , computer science , philosophy , management , neuroscience , economics
Previous research yielded conflicting results about when children can accurately assess their epistemic states in different hiding tasks. In Experiment 1, ninety‐two 3‐ to 7‐year‐olds were either shown which object was hidden inside a box, were totally ignorant about what it could be, or were presented with two objects one of which was being put inside (partial exposure). Even 3‐year‐olds could assess their epistemic states in the total ignorance and the complete knowledge task. However, only children older than 5 could assess their ignorance in the partial exposure task. In Experiment 2 with one hundred and one 3‐ to 7‐year‐olds, similar results were found for children under 5 years even when more objects were shown in partial exposure tasks. Implications for children’s developing theory of knowledge are discussed.