Journal
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Volume 63, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2022.101215
Keywords
Epistemic vigilance; Selective trust; Text; Media; Knowledge artifacts
Funding
- Boston University Counseling and Applied Human Development department
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This study examines how children evaluate knowledge artifacts and finds that children prefer learning from puppet informants. This preference is associated with inferences about the epistemic authority of text, rather than reading ability or informant type.
Research has extensively studied how children epistemically evaluate people as secondhand information sources, but less is known about how they evaluate knowledge artifacts, (nonhuman information sources; e.g., books). Recent studies indicate that many young children prefer to learn from text presented by puppet informants, but little is known as to why they display this preference. Across three studies, we examine factors that may influence the likelihood of text-trust preferences in U.S. children aged 4-6 (n = 234), including the epistemic authority they may assign to puppets, humans, or text; reading ability; and text informant preferences. Results indicate children's informant preference, but not reading ability or informant type, reliably predict texttrust preferences. Moreover, this preference is associated with inferences about the epistemic authority of text rather than informants regardless of whether children evaluate puppets or humans. Implications for future research questions and methodology examining children's learning from knowledge artifacts are discussed.
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