Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2011 Dec;110(4):561-74. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2011.06.008. Epub 2011 Jul 29.
Much recent evidence shows that preschoolers are sensitive to the accuracy of an informant. Faced with two informants, one of whom names familiar objects accurately and the other inaccurately, preschoolers subsequently prefer to learn the names and functions of unfamiliar objects from the more accurate informant. This study examined the inference process underlying this preference. We asked whether preschoolers make narrow inferences about informants, broader trait-based inferences, or more global evaluative inferences. We further asked what inferences preschoolers make about a potential informant based on distinctions in the unrelated domain of physical strength. The results indicate that preschoolers make relatively narrow inferences when observing individual differences in accuracy even though they are prone to global evaluative inferences when observing individual differences in strength. Preschoolers' burgeoning understanding of others as expert language users may underlie their selective endorsement of a more accurate informant.
大量最近的证据表明，学龄前儿童对信息提供者的准确性很敏感。当面对两个信息提供者时，一个准确地命名熟悉的物体，而另一个不准确，学龄前儿童随后更愿意从更准确的信息提供者那里学习不熟悉物体的名称和功能。本研究探讨了这种偏好背后的推理过程。我们想知道学龄前儿童是否会对信息提供者做出狭隘的推断、更广泛的基于特质的推断，还是更全面的评价性推断。我们进一步询问，学龄前儿童根据无关的物理强度领域的差异，会对潜在的信息提供者做出什么推断。结果表明，即使在观察力量差异时容易产生整体评价性推断，学龄前儿童在观察准确性个体差异时也会做出相对狭隘的推断。学龄前儿童对他人作为专家语言使用者的理解不断加深，这可能是他们选择性支持更准确信息提供者的基础。
