Ronfard Samuel, Lane Jonathan D, Wang Muanjing, Harris Paul L
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Peabody College of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37203, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2017 Nov;163:151-158. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.06.006. Epub 2017 Jul 13.
When preschoolers are presented with a label for an entity that conflicts with its appearance, they sometimes rely on the new label rather than on the entity's appearance to categorize the entity and to infer its properties. We examined whether children's learning from such claims is short-lived or long-lasting and whether the persistence of their learning depends on the degree of fit between those claims and the available perceptual evidence. Children aged 3-5years (N=71) were asked to categorize hybrids. These hybrids combined 75% of the features from one animal or object with 25% of the features from a different animal or object. After categorizing each hybrid, children heard an informant provide a contrary label. Immediately after they were provided with this new label, children often recategorized the entities accordingly, especially when the label matched the hybrid's predominant features. Children's endorsement of the informant's label proved to be long-lasting when it matched the hybrid's predominant features, typically persisting even after 5weeks. In contrast, children's endorsement often faded over time when the informant's label did not match the hybrid's predominant features. Overall, children were more skeptical of testimony that was more discrepant with the perceptual evidence available to them, and they were less likely to continue endorsing it after a delay. The findings have implications for our understanding of how children eventually come to represent and believe in counter-perceptual and counterintuitive concepts.
当向学龄前儿童展示一个与实体外观相冲突的标签时，他们有时会依赖新标签而非实体外观来对实体进行分类并推断其属性。我们研究了儿童从这类表述中学到的东西是短暂的还是持久的，以及他们学习的持续性是否取决于这些表述与现有感知证据的契合程度。我们让71名3至5岁的儿童对混合体进行分类。这些混合体结合了一种动物或物体75%的特征与另一种不同动物或物体25%的特征。在对每个混合体进行分类后，孩子们听到一个信息提供者给出了一个相反的标签。在他们被提供这个新标签后，孩子们常常会相应地重新对实体进行分类，尤其是当标签与混合体的主要特征相匹配时。当信息提供者的标签与混合体的主要特征相匹配时，孩子们对该标签的认可被证明是持久的，通常即使在5周后仍会持续。相反，当信息提供者的标签与混合体的主要特征不匹配时，孩子们的认可往往会随着时间而消退。总体而言，孩子们对与他们可获得的感知证据差异更大的证词更持怀疑态度，并且在延迟后他们不太可能继续认可它。这些发现对于我们理解儿童最终如何表征和相信反感知和反直觉概念具有启示意义。
