Knowing why: Children’s reflection on their own uncertainty about an adult’s surprising claim increases their tendency to test that claimuse asterix (*) to get italics

Tone Hermansen, Kamilla Mathisen, Samuel RonfardPlease use the format "First name initials family name" as in "Marie S. Curie, Niels H. D. Bohr, Albert Einstein, John R. R. Tolkien, Donna T. Strickland"

2022

<p>Hearing about surprising phenomena triggers exploration, even in young children. This exploration increases and changes with age. It becomes more targeted and efficient with children around 6-years-old clearly exploring with the intent to verify what they have been told. What underlies this development? In this study [anticipated total N=175, 48-84 months, 50% female], we tested the hypothesis that children’s ability to reflect on the causes of their uncertainty about a surprising claim allows them to better target their empirical investigation of that claim—and that this ability increases with age. To test this developmental account, we assigned children to one of two conditions: a prompted and an unprompted condition. In each condition, children witnessed a series of vignettes where an adult presented them with a surprising claim about an object. Children were then asked whether they thought the claim was true or not, and how certain or uncertain they were in that belief. Then, in the prompted condition, children were asked why they felt that way. Finally, in both conditions, children were asked to recommend a course of action to determine whether the adult’s claim was true or not. The findings from this study, revealed that [anticipated results: children express more uncertainty with age, older children also provide more reasons for their uncertainty, and controlling for children’s ability to design an effective test, younger children recommend targeted empirical tests for a surprising claim at similar rates to older children, but only when prompted to reflect on the causes of their uncertainty]. This provides [support/some support/no support for the notion that developments in children’s reasoning about their own uncertainty drive changes in their empirical evaluation of surprising claims].</p>

information seeking, uncertainty reasoning, testing claims, exploration

NonePlease indicate the methods that may require specialised expertise during the peer review process (use a comma to separate various required expertises).

Social sciences

2022-05-09 18:10:57

Chris Chambers