Knowledge matters: How children evaluate the reliability of testimony as a process of rational inference.

Sobel, David; Kushnir, Tamar

doi:10.1037/a0034191

Cited by 215 publications

(199 citation statements)

References 198 publications

(304 reference statements)

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“…Our findings signal a more general capacity to integrate social and statistical information into reliability judgments, which develops as toddlers reach better understanding of social and pedagogical cues (see Sobel & Kushnir, 2013). While specific social cues that toddlers may use to make reliability judgments remain subject to further investigation, the present study showed that 18-month-olds generalize new words learned from accurate speakers and extended these results by demonstrating that sensitivity to more sophisticated social cues seem best able to explain the mechanism by which children engage in such inferences.…”

Section: This Finding Corroborates and Extends Work By Brooker Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eighteen-month-olds selectively generalize words from accurate speakers to novel contexts

Luchkina¹,

Sobel²,

Morgan³

2018

Preprint

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• Toddlers generalize words learned from speakers who accurately label familiar objects, but not speakers who are inaccurate.• When speakers ask questions that contain accurate or inaccurate labels for objects during familiarization, toddlers do not consider either speaker a reliable source of knowledge for novel labels.• These data suggest that toddlers are using more than word-object-speaker associations to determine speaker reliability. | INTRODUC TI ONBecause the relation between how a word sounds and what a word means is arbitrary and conventional (Saussure, 1916(Saussure, /1966, children must learn the meanings of words from other competent language users. Several studies have found that preschoolers use speakers' history of accuracy in labeling familiar words when they learn meanings of novel words. For example, Koenig and colleagues (e.g., Koenig & Harris, 2005) have shown that 4-year-olds identified an informant who was accurate in labeling familiar objects as knowledgeable about the meaning of words, and predicted that she would be more likely to know the name of a novel object over an informant who was always inaccurate at labeling familiar objects.Even before children reach preschool age, they exhibit an ability to track interlocutors' competence or accuracy and use it in learning situations. For example, Zmyj, Buttelmann, Carpenter, and Daum (2010) showed that 14-month-olds are less likely to imitate agents' novel actions when those agents use familiar objects incompetently (for example, putting a shoe on their hand instead of foot) than when agents use familiar objects competently. Similarly, 12-month-olds track informants' competence and use it in their own exploratory behavior (Stenberg, 2013). Even 8-month-old infants have the capacity to monitor the reliability of a potential informant's gaze and AbstractThe present studies examine whether and how 18-month-olds use informants' accuracy to acquire novel labels for novel objects and generalize them to a new context. In Experiment 1, two speakers made statements about the labels of familiar objects. One used accurate labels and the other used inaccurate labels. One of these speakers then introduced novel labels for two novel objects. At test, toddlers saw those two novel objects and heard an unfamiliar voice say one of the labels provided by the speaker. Only toddlers who had heard the novel labels introduced by the accurate speaker looked at the appropriate novel object above chance. Experiment 2 explored possible mechanisms underlying this difference in generalization. Rather than making statements about familiar objects' labels, both speakers asked questions about the objects' labels, with one speaker using accurate labels and the other using inaccurate labels. Toddlers' generalization of novel labels for novel objects was at chance for both speakers, suggesting that toddlers do not simply associate hearing the accurate label with the reliability of the speaker. We discuss these results in terms of potential mechanisms by which children learn ...

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Section: This Finding Corroborates and Extends Work By Brooker Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eighteen-month-olds selectively generalize words from accurate speakers to novel contexts

Luchkina¹,

Sobel²,

Morgan³

2018

Preprint

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“…The present research indicates that young children use social information -specifically, peers' preferences -to inform their relative valuation of options and subsequent preferences. Research on children's learning in social contexts has primarily focused on information that children learn from adults (e.g., Sobel & Kushnir, 2013). However, peers comprise a large and essential component of children's social networks, and understanding what information children are learning from their peers is crucial.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Four-year-old Children Align their Preferences with those of their Peers

Hennefield

Markson

2017

Collabra: Psychology

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Children express preferences for a wide range of options, such as objects, and frequently observe the preferences that others express towards these things. However, little is know about how these initial preferences develop. The present research investigated whether one particular type of social information -other children's preferences -influences children's own preferences. Four-year-old children observed, via video, two boys and two girls display the same preference for one of two stickers. Each child (peer) expressed liking for one sticker and dislike for the other. Then children completed two rounds of the Dictator Game, a classic resource distribution task. In each round, children distributed either 10 liked stickers or 10 disliked stickers (counterbalanced) between themselves and another child who was not present. If the preferences expressed by their peers influenced children's own preferences, children should keep more of the liked than disliked stickers for themselves. In line with this prediction, more children kept more liked than disliked stickers, indicating their distribution patterns were influenced by their peers' preferences. This finding suggests that children extracted informational content about the value of the stickers from their peers and used that information to guide their own preferences. Children might also have aligned their preferences with those of their peers to facilitate social bonding and group membership. This research demonstrates the strong influence of peers on children's developing preferences, and reveals the effect of peer influence via video -a medium that young children are frequently exposed to but often struggle to learn from in other contexts.

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“…Researchers have interpreted their results in terms of updating beliefs about informants' knowledge (Pasquini et al, 2007;, theorists have discussed whether epistemic trust is rational (Sobel & Kushnir, 2013), and philosophers have formalized accounts based on reasoning about informants' knowledgeability only (Bovens & Hartmann, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The literature typically explains this development in terms of changes in the ability to monitor who is knowledgeable (Pasquini et al, 2007;). 1 Others have broadly argued that trust is rational (Sobel and Kushnir, 2013). An adjacent literature indicates changes in the ability to reason about deception (Couillard & Woodward, 1999;Mascaro & Sperber, 2009).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Parameterizing developmental changes in epistemic trust

Eaves

Shafto

2016

Psychon Bull Rev

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Children rely on others for much of what they learn, and therefore must track who to trust for information. Researchers have debated whether to interpret children's behavior as inferences about informants' knowledgeability only or as inferences about both knowledgeability and intent. We introduce a novel framework for integrating results across heterogeneous ages and methods. The framework allows application of a recent computational model to a set of results that span ages 8 months to adulthood and a variety of methods. The results show strong fits to specific findings in the literature trust, and correctly fails to fit one representative result from an adjacent literature. In the aggregate, the results show a clear development in children's reasoning about informants' intent and no appreciable changes in reasoning about informants' knowledgeability, confirming previous results. The results extend previous findings by modeling development over a much wider age range and identifying and explaining differences across methods.

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Knowledge matters: How children evaluate the reliability of testimony as a process of rational inference.

Cited by 215 publications

References 198 publications

Eighteen-month-olds selectively generalize words from accurate speakers to novel contexts

Eighteen-month-olds selectively generalize words from accurate speakers to novel contexts

Four-year-old Children Align their Preferences with those of their Peers

Parameterizing developmental changes in epistemic trust

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