Children's Informant Judgments and Recall of Valenced Facts at a Science Center

Overview

Journal Front Psychol

Date 2021 Jul 5

PMID 34220631

Authors

Kimberly E Marble

Jessica S Caporaso

Kathleen M Bettencourt

Janet J Boseovski

Thanujeni Pathman

Stuart Marcovitch

Margaret L Scales

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

In laboratory-based research, children recognize who is an expert and demonstrate an interest in learning from that person. However, children prefer positive information in the moment and sometimes prioritize positivity over expertise. To what extent do these social judgments (e.g., a preference for positivity) relate to information that children remember? We investigated the relation between these judgments and memory at a local science center to better understand children's learning outcomes in naturalistic settings. We examined the extent to which 4- to 8-year-olds accepted facts about an unfamiliar animal from a zookeeper informant (i.e., expert) and a maternal figure (i.e., non-expert) when these facts were positive, negative, or neutral. Children endorsed positive information as correct, regardless of expertise, but demonstrated the strongest memory for neutral information. We discuss the implications of this dissociation for learning outcomes in naturalistic contexts as well as theoretical frameworks regarding children's learning from others.

References

Lane J, Harris P . The Roles of Intuition and Informants' Expertise in Children's Epistemic Trust. Child Dev. 2014; 86(3):919-26. PMC: 4428962. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12324. View

Baltazar N, Shutts K, Kinzler K . Children show heightened memory for threatening social actions. J Exp Child Psychol. 2012; 112(1):102-10. DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2011.11.003. View

Nelson K, Fivush R . The emergence of autobiographical memory: a social cultural developmental theory. Psychol Rev. 2004; 111(2):486-511. DOI: 10.1037/0033-295X.111.2.486. View

Pathman T, Samson Z, Dugas K, Cabeza R, Bauer P . A "snapshot" of declarative memory: Differing developmental trajectories in episodic and autobiographical memory. Memory. 2011; 19(8):825-35. DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2011.613839. View

Benjamin N, Haden C, Wilkerson E . Enhancing building, conversation, and learning through caregiver-child interactions in a children's museum. Dev Psychol. 2010; 46(2):502-15. DOI: 10.1037/a0017822. View

Johnson M, Hashtroudi S, Lindsay D . Source monitoring. Psychol Bull. 1993; 114(1):3-28. DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.114.1.3. View

Callanan M, Castaneda C, Luce M, Martin J . Family Science Talk in Museums: Predicting Children's Engagement From Variations in Talk and Activity. Child Dev. 2017; 88(5):1492-1504. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12886. View

Koenig M, Jaswal V . Characterizing children's expectations about expertise and incompetence: halo or pitchfork effects?. Child Dev. 2011; 82(5):1634-47. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01618.x. View

Gweon H, Pelton H, Konopka J, Schulz L . Sins of omission: children selectively explore when teachers are under-informative. Cognition. 2014; 132(3):335-41. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2014.04.013. View

10.

Howe M, Candel I, Otgaar H, Malone C, Wimmer M . Valence and the development of immediate and long-term false memory illusions. Memory. 2010; 18(1):58-75. DOI: 10.1080/09658210903476514. View

11.

Rhodes M, Gelman S, Karuza J . Preschool ontology: The role of beliefs about category boundaries in early categorization. J Cogn Dev. 2014; 15(1):78-93. PMC: 3940442. DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2012.713875. View

12.

Keil F, Stein C, Webb L, Billings V, Rozenblit L . Discerning the Division of Cognitive Labor: An Emerging Understanding of How Knowledge Is Clustered in Other Minds. Cogn Sci. 2009; 32(2):259-300. PMC: 2744112. DOI: 10.1080/03640210701863339. View

13.

Brainerd C, Holliday R, Reyna V, Yang Y, Toglia M . Developmental reversals in false memory: Effects of emotional valence and arousal. J Exp Child Psychol. 2010; 107(2):137-54. PMC: 2904859. DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2010.04.013. View

14.

Best J, Miller P . A developmental perspective on executive function. Child Dev. 2010; 81(6):1641-60. PMC: 3058827. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01499.x. View

15.

Marble K, Boseovski J . Content counts: A trait and moral reasoning framework for children's selective social learning. Adv Child Dev Behav. 2020; 58:95-136. DOI: 10.1016/bs.acdb.2020.01.004. View

16.

Selmeczy D, Ghetti S . Here is a hint! How children integrate reliable recommendations in their memory decisions. J Exp Child Psychol. 2018; 177:222-239. DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.08.004. View

17.

Taylor M, Esbensen B, Bennett R . Children's understanding of knowledge acquisition: the tendency for children to report that they have always known what they have just learned. Child Dev. 1994; 65(6):1581-604. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1994.tb00837.x. View

18.

Gelman S, Coley J, Rosengren K, Hartman E, Pappas A . Beyond labeling: the role of maternal input in the acquisition of richly structured categories. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev. 1998; 63(1):I-V, 1-148; discussion 149-57. View

19.

Jant E, Haden C, Uttal D, Babcock E . Conversation and Object Manipulation Influence Children's Learning in a Museum. Child Dev. 2014; 85(5):2029-45. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12252. View

20.

Fonagy P, Gergely G, Target M . The parent-infant dyad and the construction of the subjective self. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2007; 48(3-4):288-328. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01727.x. View