Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States of America.
Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center, CNRS & Université de Paris, Paris, France.
PLoS One. 2021 Apr 9;16(4):e0249958. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249958. eCollection 2021.
Source representations play a role both in the formation of individual beliefs as well as in the social transmission of such beliefs. Both of these functions suggest that source information should be particularly useful in the context of interpersonal disagreement. Three experiments with an identical design (one original study and two replications) with 3- to 4-year-old-children (N = 100) assessed whether children's source memory performance would improve in the face of disagreement and whether such an effect interacts with different types of sources (first- vs. second-hand). In a 2 x 2 repeated-measures design, children found out about the contents of a container either by looking inside or being told (IV1). Then they were questioned about the contents of the container by an interlocutor puppet who either agreed or disagreed with their answer (IV2). We measured children's source memory performance in response to a free recall question (DV1) followed by a forced-choice question (DV2). Four-year-olds (but not three-year-olds) performed better in response to the free recall source memory question (but not the forced-choice question) when their interlocutor had disagreed with them compared to when it had agreed with them. Children were also better at recalling 'having been told' than 'having seen'. These results demonstrate that by four years of age, source memory capacities are sensitive to the communicative context of assertions and serve social functions.
来源表示在个体信念的形成以及此类信念的社会传递中都发挥作用。这两个功能都表明，在人际分歧的情况下，来源信息应该特别有用。我们进行了三项具有相同设计（一项原始研究和两项复制）的实验，实验对象为 3 至 4 岁的儿童（N=100），以评估儿童的来源记忆表现是否会在面对分歧时得到改善，以及这种效果是否与不同类型的来源（第一手来源与第二手来源）相互作用。在 2 x 2 重复测量设计中，孩子们通过内部观察或被告知（IV1）来了解容器的内容。然后，他们会被一个对话者木偶询问有关容器内容的问题，该木偶的回答与他们的回答一致或不一致（IV2）。我们通过自由回忆问题（DV1）和强制选择问题（DV2）来测量儿童的来源记忆表现。与对话者一致时相比，四岁儿童（而非三岁儿童）在自由回忆来源记忆问题上的表现更好（而非强制选择问题）。与“看到”相比，儿童在回忆“被告知”时表现更好。这些结果表明，到四岁时，来源记忆能力对断言的交际语境敏感，并具有社会功能。
