Journal
BRITISH JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 33, Issue 4, Pages 464-475Publisher
WILEY-BLACKWELL
DOI: 10.1111/bjdp.12107
Keywords
selective learning; word learning; trust; knowledge; accuracy; strength; theory of mind
Categories
Funding
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [756-2012-0284, 435-2012-1403]
- NICHD [R01HD468058]
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Children can selectively attend to various attributes of a model, such as past accuracy or physical strength, to guide their social learning. There is a debate regarding whether a relation exists between theory-of-mind skills and selective learning. We hypothesized that high performance on theory-of-mind tasks would predict preference for learning new words from accurate informants (an epistemic attribute), but not from physically strong informants (a non-epistemic attribute). Three- and 4-year-olds (N=65) completed two selective learning tasks, and their theory-of-mind abilities were assessed. As expected, performance on a theory-of-mind battery predicted children's preference to learn from more accurate informants but not from physically stronger informants. Results thus suggest that preschoolers with more advanced theory of mind have a better understanding of knowledge and apply that understanding to guide their selection of informants. This work has important implications for research on children's developing social cognition and early learning.
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