Do Japanese children say `yes' to their mothers? A naturalistic study of response bias in parent-toddler conversations

Abstract

This study investigated the situations in which children say `yes' in response to yes-no questions. Japanese-speaking children aged 2;0—3;11 ( N=38) were asked yes-no questions by their own mothers at home. Children showed a strong yes bias. The results, combined with those of earlier studies, suggest that a yes bias is a general phenomenon. In addition, young Japanese children showed Japanese-specific response tendencies.

Do young and old preschoolers exhibit response bias due to different mechanisms? Investigating children’s response time

“…1016/j.jecp.2011.04.012 questions pertaining to various entities such as objects, children's preference for objects, and facial expressions) (e.g., Fritzley & Lee, 2003;, 2010b. These studies found that younger preschoolers consistently exhibited a strong yes bias, but older preschoolers either did or did not exhibit any response bias (Fritzley & Lee, 2003;Okanda & Itakura, 2007, 2010bOkanda, Somogyi, & Itakura, 2011). Given these results, researchers suggested that yes-no questions are not suitable for younger preschoolers (Fritzley & Lee, 2003) or both younger and older preschoolers (Okanda & Itakura, 2010b).…”

“…Okanda and Itakura (2010b) proposed that younger and older preschoolers might exhibit response biases due to different mechanisms. They noted that cognitive abilities such as inhibitory control abilities and language skills could contribute to younger preschoolers' tendencies to exhibit a yes bias (see also Moriguchi, Okanda, & Itakura, 2008;Okanda & Itakura, 2007): young preschoolers might exhibit a yes bias automatically because they cannot inhibit a ''yes'' response or because they do not understand the context of the questions. For older preschoolers, Okanda and Itakura (2010b) suggested that there are more social reasons for choosing ''yes'' or ''no'' responses. In this study, we examined children's response latency to yes-no questions to provide support for the idea that younger and older preschoolers exhibit a yes bias due to different mechanisms.…”

“…Specifically, 2-year-olds in North America (Fritzley & Lee, 2003), Japan, Vietnam , and Hungary (Okanda et al, 2011) consistently exhibited a yes bias to comprehensible yes-no questions pertaining to knowledge of familiar and unfamiliar objects when the questions were posed by strange adults. Japanese 2-year-olds exhibited a yes bias to the same questions when asked by their mothers (Okanda & Itakura, 2007). North American 2-yearolds consistently exhibited a yes bias to yes-no questions pertaining to familiar and unfamiliar objects that included nonsense words (e.g., ''Is this for nirking?'')…”

“…(Fritzley & Lee, 2003). Results from 3-yearolds were mixed; however, North American, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Hungarian 3-year-olds exhibited a yes bias under at least one condition (Fritzley & Lee, 2003;Okanda & Itakura, 2007, 2010bOkanda et al, 2011). Moreover, Japanese 3-year-olds exhibited a yes bias to various yes-no questions pertaining to object knowledge, preferences for objects, and knowledge of facial expressions (Okanda & Itakura, 2010b).…”

“…The DCCS has been used to test children's inhibitory control abilities, and children become able to pass the DCCS task between 4 and 5 years of age (e.g., Moriguchi et al, 2007;Zelazo et al, 1996). Moriguchi and colleagues (2008) suggested that children have more opportunities to give a ''yes'' response rather than a ''no'' response to adults' yes-no questions in their daily lives, and younger preschoolers might have difficulty in inhibiting this dominant response (see also Okanda & Itakura, 2007), unlike older preschoolers. In fact, Japanese 4-to 6-year-olds who sometimes exhibited a yes bias to comprehensible questions pertaining to knowledge of familiar objects , 2010bOkanda et al, 2011) could give appropriate answers to questions about object preference and facial expression (Okanda & Itakura, 2010b); older Japanese children have the general ability to say ''no,'' but they prefer to say ''yes'' in particular situations.…”