Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Wheelock College of Education and Human Development, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2019 Jul;183:65-74. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.01.013. Epub 2019 Mar 8.
Although much research has explored the cues that young children use to determine informant credibility, little research has examined whether credibility judgments can change over time as a function of children's language environment. This study explored whether changes in the syntactic complexity of adults' testimony shifts 4- and 5-year-old children's (N = 42) credibility and learning judgments. Children from lower-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds were randomly assigned to hear a high proportion of complex language (the passive voice) or simpler language (the active voice) during 10 days of book-reading interactions with adult experimenters. Before and after the book-reading sessions, children's learning preferences for informants who used passive versus active voice were measured. Exposure to the complex passive voice led children to use syntactic complexity as a cue to make inferences about who to learn from, whereas active voice exposure resulted in no such shift. Implications for the role of the language environment in children's selective trust are discussed.
尽管许多研究已经探讨了幼儿用来确定信息提供者可信度的线索，但很少有研究考察过随着儿童语言环境的变化，可信度判断是否会随着时间的推移而发生变化。本研究探讨了成年人证词的句法复杂性变化是否会改变 4 至 5 岁儿童（N=42）的可信度和学习判断。来自社会经济地位较低背景的儿童在与实验者进行为期 10 天的阅读互动期间，随机分配到听到大量复杂语言（被动语态）或简单语言（主动语态）的环境中。在阅读课程之前和之后，测量了儿童对使用被动语态与主动语态的信息提供者的学习偏好。接触复杂的被动语态使儿童将句法复杂性用作线索，根据线索来推断应该向谁学习，而接触主动语态则不会导致这种转变。讨论了语言环境在儿童选择性信任中的作用。
