Pointing disrupts preschoolers’ ability to discriminate between knowledgeable and ignorant informants

Abstract

By 4 years of age, children have been reinforced repeatedly for searching where they see someone point. In two studies, we asked whether this history of reinforcement could interfere with young children’s ability to discriminate between a knowledgeable and an ignorant informant. Children watched as one informant hid a sticker while another turned around, and then both informants indicated where they though the sticker was, either by pointing or by using a less practiced means of reference. Children failed to discriminate between the two informants when they pointed, but they chose the location indicated by the knowledgeable informant when the informants used a cue other than pointing. Pointing can disrupt as basic an understanding as the link between seeing and knowing.

Four‐ to Six‐Year‐Old Children's Sensitivity to Reliability Versus Consensus in the Endorsement of Object Labels

“…Indeed, research has shown that the pointing gesture is an important indicator of another person's knowledge state for younger children, regardless of the person's verbal indication (Grassmann & Tomasello, 2010) or visual access (Palmquist, Burns, & Jaswal, 2012;. Nevertheless, as mentioned previously, past research seems to indicate that the total number of pointing gestures did not influence the consensus effect.…”

Two‐year‐olds use adults' but not peers' points

“…In the absence of conflicting evidence, 3‐year‐olds trust previously inaccurate informants in an object‐labeling task (Vanderbilt, Heyman, & Liu, ) and even follow the advice of a communicator who is labeled as a “big liar” despite receiving continuous feedback by the experimenter (Mascaro & Sperber, ). It is especially difficult for children not to follow pointing gestures in standard object choice paradigms as informative pointing gestures are generally not only produced with clear communicative intent (Heyman, Sritanyaratana, & Vanderbilt, ) but also have a veridical history (Palmquist et al., ). For example, 3‐year‐olds are unable to ignore a clearly ignorant pointer's gesture directly conflicting with a reliable gesture from a knowledgeable communicator when presented simultaneously (Palmquist, Burns, & Jaswal, ; Palmquist & Jaswal, ).…”

“…It is especially difficult for children not to follow pointing gestures in standard object choice paradigms as informative pointing gestures are generally not only produced with clear communicative intent (Heyman, Sritanyaratana, & Vanderbilt, ) but also have a veridical history (Palmquist et al., ). For example, 3‐year‐olds are unable to ignore a clearly ignorant pointer's gesture directly conflicting with a reliable gesture from a knowledgeable communicator when presented simultaneously (Palmquist, Burns, & Jaswal, ; Palmquist & Jaswal, ). They also appear unable to ignore pointing gestures to one of two containers even if these points are constantly misleading in several consecutive trials (Couillard & Woodward, ).…”

“…Peers can also serve as an important learning context by providing a zone of proximal development (Vygostky, 1978) making slightly older peers especially salient sources of information (Zmyj & Seehagen, 2013). In addition, pointing is a highly salient ostensive practice (Csibra & Gergely, 2009), and one with which children have a strong tendency to comply (Palmquist, Burns, & Jaswal, 2012).…”

Conflicting Social Cues: Fourteen- and 24-Month-Old Infants' Reliance on Gaze and Pointing Cues in Word Learning

“…That is, regardless of whether the informant actually saw the baiting event or not, children relied to the same extent on both persons when they were pointing to convey information. Palmquist, Burns, and Jaswal (2012) also showed that this effect is unique for pointing CONFLICTING SOCIAL CUES 45 and does not occur for other referential forms. Taken together, these considerations and studies provide evidence that for preschool children, the pointing gesture is an important indicator of another person's referential intention and his knowledge state, regardless of the person's visual access, which has previously been considered the strongest indicator of a person's knowledge (cf.…”