Varieties Of Testimony:Children's Selective Trust In Name And Function Of Objects

The study is to examine whether preschool children's trust in informant is influenced by the attribute of the testimony when making selective learning decisions and to explore their internal psychological mechanism of selective preference by providing them with the opportunity of self-explanation.In experiment 1,a single-factor,completely random test between subjects was conducted to probe whether preschool children's selective trust is influenced by the attribute of the testimony.In this test,the varieties of testimony are as follows: 1.Name error VS Function error(e.g.a pen is named a pair of scissors and it can be used for cooking);2.Name correctness VS Function error(e.g.a toothbrush is named a toothbrush and it can be used to take temperature);3.Name error VS Function correctness(e.g.a desk lamp is named a phone and it can be used to illuminate);4.Ignorant testimony(e.g.,not knowing the name of the pen and its use).The results of the experiment show that the preschool children's selective trust is indeed influenced by the attribute of the testimony provided by the informant.In the situation of name error vs function error,the preschool children's judgment of the reliability of the informant's subsequent claims is based on the accuracy of the informant's past testimony and very few children endorse informant's claims on the function of and the name of novel objects;In the situation of ignorant testimony,most preschool children endorse ignorant informant's claim on the function and name of the novel objects.In the situation of name correctness vs function error,most preschool children endorse the informant's name of the novel objects.However,there are still a large number of children who endorse the informant's claims on the function of the novel objects without inferring the informant's claims on the function of the novel object by the accuracy of the informant's past testimony.In the situation of name error vs function correctness,there was no significant difference between preschool children's endorse on claims of the name of and functions of novel objects.Even if the informant was correct in the claims of the function of familiar objects in the past,more preschool children endorse the claim of name of the novel objects,and fewer preschool children endorse the claims of its function.In experiment 2,a single-factor,completely random test between subjects was employed once more to further explore the preschool children's learning characteristics of the testimony on the name and function of objects.Also,in this test,the internal psychological mechanism of preschool children's selective preference is examined by providing them with the opportunity of self-explanation.In this test,the varieties of testimony are as follows: 1.Name correctness VS Function error(e.g.a toothbrush is named a toothbrush and it can be used to take temperature);2.Name error VS Function correctness(e.g.a desk lamp is named a phone and it can be used to illuminate).The research results demonstrate that there is difference in children's learning of the testimony on name and function.In addition,the informant's mistakes made in name are more likely to arouse the preschool children's epistemic vigilance.Preschool children's self-explanation enables them to filter some misleading information selectively,which reveals the psychological mechanism of their reasoning to the informant.Most of the preschool children attribute the informant's errors and ignorance to the following factors: she is ignorant;she has never seen the object provided;she has never tried;she has never learned;she has not been to kindergarten;her mother or teacher has never taught her when she was a child;she did not remember;she remembered wrongly;she forgot;she did not think hard;she is stupid;she is joking;she is very stupid;she imagines these things as something else.In summary,the results of the experiment show that the selective trust of preschool children is indeed affected by the attribute of the testimony and there is difference in preschool children's learning of the testimony on name and function.Children are more sensitive to the errors in name of objects than to the errors in the claims of its function,i.e.the informant's mistakes made while name are more likely to arouse the children's epistemic vigilance.Early word meaning contains chiefly functional information.Preschool children's self-explanation reveals the inner psychological mechanism of reasoning to the informant and affects their trust in the informant.Apart from that,self-explanation also help filter some misleading information selectively and weaken children's default deviation to adult's testimony.