TY - JOUR
T1 - Changing your mind about things unseen
T2 - Toddlers' sensitivity to prior reliability
AU - Ganea, Patricia A.
AU - Koenig, Melissa
AU - Millett, Katherine Gordon
PY - 2011/8/1
Y1 - 2011/8/1
N2 - The goal of this research was to investigate the extent to which young children use the past reliability of another person's statements to make inferences about the accuracy of that person's claims about a hidden toy. When children interacted with a previously reliable speaker, both 30- and 36-month-olds searched in the new location of the toy, in line with the speaker's statement. When children interacted with an unreliable speaker, the 36-month-olds were less likely to rely on her false statement and instead searched either in the original location of the toy or in a neutral location. The 30-month-olds, however, searched in the location indicated by the speaker even when the speaker was unreliable. These results show that by 36 months of age, children begin to use reliability in processing a speaker's episodic claims and can flexibly update their representations of absent objects depending on the reliability of the speaker.
AB - The goal of this research was to investigate the extent to which young children use the past reliability of another person's statements to make inferences about the accuracy of that person's claims about a hidden toy. When children interacted with a previously reliable speaker, both 30- and 36-month-olds searched in the new location of the toy, in line with the speaker's statement. When children interacted with an unreliable speaker, the 36-month-olds were less likely to rely on her false statement and instead searched either in the original location of the toy or in a neutral location. The 30-month-olds, however, searched in the location indicated by the speaker even when the speaker was unreliable. These results show that by 36 months of age, children begin to use reliability in processing a speaker's episodic claims and can flexibly update their representations of absent objects depending on the reliability of the speaker.
KW - Episodic information
KW - Epistemic trust
KW - Language
KW - Learning
KW - Mental representation
KW - Updating
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79955481979&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=79955481979&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jecp.2011.02.011
DO - 10.1016/j.jecp.2011.02.011
M3 - Article
C2 - 21474145
AN - SCOPUS:79955481979
SN - 0022-0965
VL - 109
SP - 445
EP - 453
JO - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
IS - 4
ER -