Who knows best? Preschoolers sometimes prefer child informants over adult informants

Abstract

Do preschoolers think adults know more about everything than children? Or do they recognize that there are some things that children might know more about than adults? Three-, four-, and fiveyear-olds (N = 65) were asked to decide whether an adult or child informant would better be able to answer a variety of questions about the nutritional value of foods and about toys. Children at all ages chose to direct the food questions to the adult and the toy questions to the child. Thus, there are some kinds of information for which preschoolers expect that a child would be a better informant than an adult.Much of our knowledge is based on information that other people have provided to us rather than on first-hand, direct experience. For example, if I wanted to know the benefits of eating foods rich in antioxidants, I would consult a doctor rather than conducting my own experiments. If I wanted to know the special code to use to give myself extra powers in a videogame, I would consult a gamer rather than trying to figure it out myself. As adults, in addition to recognizing the limitations of our own expertise, we recognize that other people are similarly limited. As a result, we selectively seek out particular people depending on the type of information we are looking for: A doctor is probably a better source of information about antioxidants than a gamer, and a gamer is probably a better source of information about videogames than a doctor.

On the nature of cultural transmission networks: evidence from Fijian villages for adaptive learning biases

“…Young children (typically 3 and 4 year olds) spontaneously track the competence of potential models in labelling objects and knowing the function of artefacts, and then preferentially imitate more competent models, even after a one week delay (reviewed in [23]). Although children show a capacity to identify skill differences indirectly using cues about age, confidence and experience [24,25], they selectively weigh competence over age by taking the word of a previously accurate child over an inaccurate adult [26,27].…”

Four-year-old Children Align their Preferences with those of their Peers

“…Further, it is plausible that young children might be most strongly influenced by other children -their peers -when it comes to subjective information. Indeed, empirical findings suggest that children consider the content of the material, for example, if they need information about toys or food, when determining whether a child or adult is a better source of information (VanderBorght & Jaswal, 2009). In addition, children appear to engage in behaviors that strengthen social connections and group membership with peers, such as conformity (Haun & Tomasello, 2011) and reputation management (Engelmann, Herrmann, & Tomasello, 2012;Leimgruber, Shaw, Santos, & Olson, 2012).…”

Children’s use of linguistic information when learning in a bilingual context

“…Children are selective about who they choose to learn from (e.g., Birch, Vauthier, & Bloom, 2008;Buttelmann, Zmyj, Daum, & Carpenter, 2012;Corriveau & Harris, 2009;Fusaro & Harris, 2008;Jaswal & Neely, 2006;Kinzler, Corriveau, & Harris, 2011;Kinzler, Dupoux, & Spelke, 2012;Kinzler, Shutts, & Spelke, 2012;Koenig & Woodward, 2010;Shutts, Banaji, & Spelke, 2010;Shutts, Kinzler, McKee, & Spelke, 2009;Vanderborght & Jaswal, 2009; for a review, see …”

“…e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / j e c p Studies using a variety of methods indicate that children generally prefer to learn from people who are like themselves-that is, they prefer to learn from those with whom they share community membership (e.g., Kinzler et al, 2011;Meltzoff, 2011;Vanderborght & Jaswal, 2009). However, who is considered ''like themselves" is complex for bilingual children; bilingual children's community membership can be based on shared languages or the shared experience of being bilingual.…”

“…However, who is considered ''like themselves" is complex for bilingual children; bilingual children's community membership can be based on shared languages or the shared experience of being bilingual. Thus, this study examined who bilingual children prefer to imitate-those who speak the same two languages as them or those who share the experience of being bilingual but do not necessarily speak the same two languages.Research with monolingual children indicates that when two social partners provide different information, children prefer to learn from the person who shares community membership with them (e.g., Birch et al, 2008;Corriveau & Harris, 2009;Fusaro & Harris, 2008;Jaswal & Neely, 2006;Kinzler et al, 2011;Koenig & Woodward, 2010;Shutts et al, 2010;Vanderborght & Jaswal, 2009). For example, monolingual infants and 2-year-olds imitate the actions of and show preferences for foods and toys endorsed by adults speaking their native language over adults speaking a foreign language (Buttelmann et al, 2012;Kinzler, Dupoux, & Spelke, 2012;Kinzler, Shutts, & Spelke, 2012;Shutts et al, 2009).…”