Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Dev Sci. 2010 Mar;13(2):363-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00906.x.
Data from three experiments provide the first evidence that children, at least as young as age two, are vigilant of others' non-verbal cues to credibility, and flexibly use these cues to facilitate learning. Experiment 1 revealed that 2- and 3-year-olds prefer to learn about objects from someone who appears, through non-verbal cues, to be confident in performing actions on those objects than from someone who appears uncertain when performing actions on those objects. Experiment 2 revealed that when 2-year-olds observe only one model perform a single action, either confidently or unconfidently, they do not use the model's level of confidence in this single instance to influence their learning. Experiment 3 revealed that 2-year-olds will use a single model's level of confidence to guide their learning if they have observed that the model has a history of being either consistently confident or consistently uncertain. These findings reveal that young children selectively alter their learning based on others' non-verbal cues of credibility, and underscore the importance of an early sensitivity to socio-cognitive cues for human learning and development.
三项实验提供了首个证据，表明儿童（至少 2 岁的儿童）对他人非言语可信度线索保持警觉，并能灵活运用这些线索促进学习。实验 1 表明，2 至 3 岁的儿童更愿意从那些通过非言语线索表现出对操作物体有信心的人那里学习有关物体的知识，而不是从那些在操作物体时表现出不确定的人那里学习。实验 2 表明，当 2 岁的儿童只观察到一个模型自信或不自信地执行单一动作时，他们不会根据模型在这一单一实例中的自信程度来影响他们的学习。实验 3 表明，如果 2 岁的儿童观察到模型一直表现出自信或一直表现出不确定，他们会根据模型的自信程度来指导自己的学习。这些发现表明，年幼的儿童会根据他人可信度的非言语线索有选择地改变自己的学习方式，强调了对社会认知线索的早期敏感性对人类学习和发展的重要性。
