Lopez-Mobilia Gabriel, Woolley Jacqueline D
Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin.
J Cogn Dev. 2016;17(3):486-504. doi: 10.1080/15248372.2015.1061529. Epub 2016 Jan 11.
In two studies we attempt to capture the information processing abilities underlying children's reality-status judgments. Forty 5- to 6-year-olds and 53 7- to 8-year-olds heard about novel entities (animals) that varied in their fit with children's world knowledge. After hearing about each entity, children could either guess reality status immediately or listen to testimony first. Informants varied in their expertise and in their testimony, which either supported or refuted the entities' existence. Results revealed that children were able to evaluate the fit between the new information and their existing knowledge; this information then governed their decision regarding whether to seek testimony. Testimony had the strongest effect when new information did not conflict with, but was also not representative of, children's knowledge.
在两项研究中，我们试图获取儿童现实状态判断背后的信息处理能力。40名5至6岁儿童和53名7至8岁儿童听闻了一些与他们的世界知识契合度各异的新奇实体（动物）。在听闻每个实体后，孩子们既可以立即猜测其现实状态，也可以先听取证词。提供信息者的专业程度以及证词各不相同，这些证词有的支持、有的反驳实体的存在。结果显示，孩子们能够评估新信息与他们现有知识之间的契合度；这些信息随后决定了他们是否寻求证词。当新信息与儿童的知识既不冲突也不具有代表性时，证词的影响最为强烈。
