Preschoolers’ Selective Trust Characteristics of Knowledge in Different Domains in the Clue Conflict Condition

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2020, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (2) : 371-377.

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PDF(509 KB)
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2020, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (2) : 371-377.

Preschoolers’ Selective Trust Characteristics of Knowledge in Different Domains in the Clue Conflict Condition

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Abstract

Preschoolers are in an important period of intellectual development and knowledge learning. Preschoolers can acquire knowledge through their own experience (personal learning) and their interaction with others (social learning), but most of them are the latter. The learning process of preschoolers can be seen as a process of trusting the information provided by others. In recent years, selective trust appears to be a hot spot in the developmental psychology field. Previous research indicated that preschoolers used past reliability and consensus to learn new knowledge, and the goal of the present study is to examine the characteristics of selective trust in preschoolers when they are in conflict. In real life, object labeling belongs to the understanding of objective things, which is a part of the conventional domain knowledge. And understanding others belongs to the social domain knowledge. Most of the researches of selective trust focused on the conventional domain knowledge in the past. In recent years, they have expanded into the social domain knowledge. And preschoolers’ selective trust was studied separately on the conventional and social domain knowledge. Since they weren’t based on an integrated framework, the results could not good answer the similarities and differences of the two domains knowledge learned by preschoolers. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate selective trust characteristics of knowledge in different domains. In Experiment 1, 88 4- to 6-year-old preschoolers participated in the study. we examined the selective trust characteristics of the conventional domain knowledge in the clue conflict situation. All preschoolers were presented with a three-phase testing sequence involving a pre-reliability phase, a reliability familiarization phase, and a post-reliability phase. The result indicated that 4-year-old preschoolers used the consensus clue to make trust judgment, and 5- and 6- year-old preschoolers used the accuracy clue to make trust judgment. In Experiment 2, 94 4- to 6-year-old preschoolers participated in the study. we examined the selective trust characteristics of the social domain knowledge in the clue conflict situation. All preschoolers were also presented with a three-phase testing. The result indicated that 4-year-old preschoolers used the consensus clue to make trust judgment. The 5-year-old preschoolers could not explicitly use the consensus clue or the accuracy clue to make trust judgment, and the 6-year-old preschoolers used the accuracy clue to make trust judgment. Experiment 3 was used within-subjects design to explore the selective trust of 5-year-old preschoolers in different fields of knowledge, all preschoolers were presented with a two-phase testing sequence involving a reliability familiarization phase and a post-reliability phase. Part of the results of Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 were verified. In summary, the consensus clue is one of the ways in which children assessed information reliability, Conformity is an important mechanism for social learning. With age, the accuracy clue is dominant when children learn knowledge. Furthermore, the study found that preschoolers’ selective trust in different domains has different age development characteristics. 4-year-olds learn the conventional and social domain knowledge based on the consensus clue; 5-year-olds learn the conventional domain knowledge based on the accuracy clue, but don’t make biased choices for the consensus clue and accuracy clue when learning the social domain knowledge; 6-year-olds learn the conventional and social domain knowledge based on the accuracy clue.

Key words

preschoolers, selective trust, accuracy clue, consensus clue

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Preschoolers’ Selective Trust Characteristics of Knowledge in Different Domains in the Clue Conflict Condition[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2020, 43(2): 371-377
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