Making sense of conflicting information: A touchscreen paradigm to measure young children's selective trust

Abstract

Much recent research has shown that children from age 4 onwards reveal a robust preference for reliable over unreliable informants when choosing whom to trust and learn from. Findings concerning selective model choice in children younger than 4 years have mostly been mixed. The present study developed a new touchscreen‐based paradigm with reduced task demands in order to test 2‐ and 3‐year‐old children (N = 48). Results showed that 3‐year‐olds selectively endorsed information from a previously reliable rather than a previously unreliable informant when searching for objects whereas 2‐year‐olds just followed the first hint even if provided by an unreliable informant. Whether the lack of selective model choice in 2‐year‐olds reflects competence or performance deficits remains to be clarified. But the present results do suggest that 3‐years‐olds have the basic competence to selectively choose reliable over unreliable informants that may have been masked in some previous studies by task demands. Highlights The paper develops a novel touchscreen‐based search paradigm to test young children's selective trust with reduced task demands. Three‐year‐olds chose selectively between conflicting hints, whereas 2‐year‐olds followed the first hint even if provided by an unreliable informant.

The cognitive underpinnings and early development of children's selective trust

“…Both these studies engaged participants in a hiding game and two speakers, a reliable and an unreliable one, provided conflicting information regarding the bait's hiding location. This research showed that 3‐year‐olds selectively endorsed the information provided by the more reliable speaker, but 2‐year‐olds did not (Ganea et al., 2011; Hermes et al., 2019). It is important to note, however, that the information the speakers provided in these games was episodic in nature (e.g., where the object had been hidden) rather than semantic (what an object is called).…”

“…However, as their selective trust is assessed by testing whom they trust, it is possible to distinguish a distrust in the information from an unreliable speaker from an overall decrease in performance when encountering bizarre circumstances. Hence, the two‐informant design may be considered a clearer test of children's selective trust (see also Hermes et al., 2019 for a discussion of the benefits and performance demands of the standard two informant design).…”

Testimony bias lingers across development under uncertainty.

“…Additionally, when children of this age have the opportunity to evaluate another person's reliability against their own observations, children reduce their trust in that person as an informant (Bridgers et al, 2016;Ronfard & Lane, 2018;Ronfard et al, 2017). Therefore, there is strong and consistent data supporting the view that part of what makes children good learners is that they become active in selecting and weighting social and experiential evidence in acquiring knowledge about the world (Hermes et al, 2018(Hermes et al, , 2019Shafto et al, 2012;Sobel et al, 2010;Sobel & Kushnir, 2013).…”

Specifying links between infants' theory of mind, associative learning, and selective trust

“…In addition to the lean and rich interpretation being examined separately, some researchers argue that both lower‐order and higher‐order cognitive abilities may be involved in selective social learning (Hermes et al, 2018; Sobel & Kushnir, 2013). Sobel and Kushnir (2013) developed a theoretical model, which proposes that infants may be using more basic‐level abilities, such as statistical learning, and then progress to using more sophisticated abilities when growing older but only once they have the conceptual background knowledge.…”

“…Based on previous research, it was expected that infants would be more likely to learn a new word from the reliable speaker rather than from the unreliable one. Although this type of design contrasts with previous research in infancy, it is a more conservative test to measure selective social learning, as infants are presented with two informants and they are then required to choose from whom to learn which can eliminate potential differences between conditions (Hermes, Rakoczy, et al, 2018). Furthermore, a new set of theory of mind tasks were used in the present study to investigate potential correlates.…”