University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Law Hum Behav. 2010 Apr;34(2):141-9. doi: 10.1007/s10979-009-9177-9. Epub 2009 Mar 5.
This study examined maltreated and non-maltreated children's (N = 183) emerging understanding of "truth" and "lie," terms about which they are quizzed to qualify as competent to testify. Four- to six-year-old children were asked to accept or reject true and false (T/F) statements, label T/F statements as the "truth" or "a lie," label T/F statements as "good" or "bad," and label "truth" and "lie" as "good" or "bad." The youngest children were at ceiling in accepting/rejecting T/F statements. The labeling tasks revealed improvement with age and children performed similarly across the tasks. Most children were better able to evaluate "truth" than "lie." Maltreated children exhibited somewhat different response patterns, suggesting greater sensitivity to the immorality of lying.
本研究考察了受虐待和未受虐待儿童（N=183）对“真相”和“谎言”这两个术语的理解，这两个术语是他们有资格作证的关键。研究人员对 4 至 6 岁的儿童进行了测试，要求他们接受或拒绝真实和虚假（T/F）陈述，将 T/F 陈述标记为“真相”或“谎言”，将 T/F 陈述标记为“好”或“坏”，并将“真相”和“谎言”标记为“好”或“坏”。最小的孩子在接受/拒绝 T/F 陈述方面已经达到了上限。标记任务显示出随着年龄的增长而有所提高，并且儿童在各个任务中的表现相似。大多数儿童更善于评估“真相”而非“谎言”。受虐待的儿童表现出的反应模式略有不同，这表明他们对说谎的不道德性更加敏感。
