University of California, Berkeley.
Child Dev. 2019 Jan;90(1):91-97. doi: 10.1111/cdev.13143. Epub 2018 Sep 3.
Belief revision can occur at multiple levels of abstraction, including lower-level and higher-order beliefs. It remains unclear, however, how conflicting evidence interacts with prior beliefs to encourage higher-order belief revision. This study explores how 4- and 5-year-olds (N = 96) respond to evidence that directly conflicts with their causal higher-order beliefs. When shown a single event that directly violated a strongly supported prior belief, preschoolers largely maintained their initial higher-order belief. However, when the prior belief was more weakly supported and the counterevidence was stronger, children changed their minds. These findings indicate that young children can revise their higher-order beliefs and, furthermore, do so depending on the strength of both the evidence and their prior beliefs.
信念修正可以在多个抽象层次上发生，包括较低层次和较高层次的信念。然而，目前尚不清楚冲突的证据如何与先前的信念相互作用，以鼓励更高层次的信念修正。本研究探讨了 4 至 5 岁儿童（N=96）如何应对与他们的因果关系高阶信念直接冲突的证据。当呈现一个单一的事件，直接违反了一个强烈支持的先验信念，学龄前儿童在很大程度上保持了他们最初的高阶信念。然而，当先验信念的支持较弱，而反证据较强时，儿童就会改变主意。这些发现表明，年幼的孩子可以修正他们的高阶信念，而且，他们会根据证据和他们先验信念的强度来进行修正。
