Psychological Development and Education ›› 2019, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (3): 257-266.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2019.03.01

    Next Articles

Children's Selective Trust: The Role of Informant's Previous Accuracy

TONG Yu1, WANG Fuxing1, LI Hui2   

  1. 1. School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079;
    2. School of Education, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079
  • Published:2019-06-19

RichHTML

PDF (PC)

Abstract: As a social learner, even 3-year-old children can evaluate the credibility of informants with a variety of attributes. However, previous studies showed inconsistent results about the role of informant's previous accuracy on children's selective trust. In this article, we reviewed studies which children select and assess information based on informants' previous accuracy with "familiarization-test" paradigms. It was found children believed that previous accurate informant were more trustworthy than previous inaccurate one. When making trust choices, children mainly monitored informant's inaccuracy, and apply "global impression" and "trait reasoning" these two cognitive strategies flexibly to predict informant's future behavior. Moreover, children could make a dynamically adjustment according to the different situations and backgrounds. In the meanwhile, children's personal experience and the level of their cognitive development (i.e., theory of mind and executive function) limited their trust preference choices. Future studies might improve the research paradigm, extend the way of presentation, focus on the multiple characteristics and different ontological categories of informants.

Key words: children, selective trust, informant, previous accuracy

CLC Number: 

  • B844
Bascandziev, I., & Harris, P. L. (2016). The beautiful and the accurate:Are children's selective trust decisions biased? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 152, 92-105.
Bernard, S., Harris, P., Terrier, N., & Clément, F. (2015). Children weigh the number of informants and perceptual uncertainty when identifying objects. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 136, 70-81.
Bernard, S., Proust, J., & Clément, F. (2015). Four to six-year-old children's sensitivity to reliability versus consensus in the endorsement of object labels. Child Development, 86(4), 1112-1124.
Best, J. R., & Miller, P. H. (2010). A developmental perspective on executive function. Child Development,81(6), 1641-1660.
Birch, S. A. J., Vauthier, S. A., & Bloom, P. (2008). Three-and four-year-olds spontaneously use others' past performance to guide their learning. Cognition, 107(3), 1018-1034.
Boseovski, J. J. (2012). Trust in testimony about strangers:Young children prefer reliable informants who make positive attributions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 111(3), 543-551.
Brosseau-Liard, P. (2017). The roots of critical thinking:Selective learning strategies in childhood and their implications. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 58(3), 263-270.
Brosseau-Liard, P., & Birch, S. A. J. (2010). ‘I bet you know more and are nicer too!’:What children infer from others' accuracy. Developmental Science, 13(5), 772-778.
Brosseau-Liard, P., Cassels, T., & Birch, S. (2014). You seem certain but you were wrong before:Developmental change in preschoolers' relative trust in accurate versus confident speakers. PLoS ONE, 9(9), e108308.
Brosseau-Liard, P., Penney, D., & Poulin-Dubois, D. (2015). Theory of mind selectively predicts preschoolers' knowledge-based selective word learning. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 33(4), 464-475.
Cao, M. L., Gong, W. J., & Tang, Y. L. (2012). Impact of bystander's non-verbal cues on preschoolers' selective trust. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 20(5), 613-615.
Clément, F. (2010). To trust or not to trust? Children's social epistemology. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 1(4), 531-549.
Clément, F., Koenig, M. A., & Harris, P. (2004). The ontogenesis of trust. Mind and Language, 19(4), 360-379.
Corriveau, K. H., & Harris, P. L. (2009a). Choosing your informant:Weighing familiarity and recent accuracy. Developmental Science, 12(3), 426-437.
Corriveau, K. H., & Harris, P. L. (2009b). Preschoolers continue to trust a more accurate informant 1 week after exposure to accuracy information. Developmental Science, 12(1), 188-193.
Corriveau, K. H., & Harris, P. L. (2010). Preschoolers (sometimes) defer to the majority in making simple perceptual judgments. Developmental Psychology, 46(2), 437-445.
Corriveau, K. H., Kinzler, K. D., & Harris, P. L. (2013). Accuracy trumps accent in children's endorsement of object labels. Developmental Psychology, 49(3), 470-479.
Corriveau,K.H.,Meimts,K., & Harris, P.L.(2019).Early tracking of informant accuracy and inaccuracy. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 27(2),331-342.
Danovitch, J. H., & Alzahabi, R. (2013). Children show selective trust in technological informants. Journal of Cognition and Development, 14(3), 499-513.
Danovitch, J. H., & Mills, C. M. (2014). How familiar characters influence children's judgments about information and products. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 128, 1-20.
Ding,X.C., Sang,B.,& Pan, T.T.(2017). Relations between Selective trust, Theory of mind, and exeautive function in preschoolers:Evidence from longitudinal study. Journal of psychological science,40(5),1129-1135.
DiYanni, C., Nini, D., Rheel, W., & Livelli, A. (2012). ‘I won't trust you if I think you're trying to deceive me’:Relations between selective trust, theory of mind, and imitation in early childhood. Journal of Cognition and Development, 13(3), 354-371.
Elashi, F. B., & Mills, C. M. (2014). Do children trust based on group membership or prior accuracy? The role of novel group membership in children's trust decisions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 128, 88-104.
Fusaro, M., Corriveau, K. H., & Harris, P. L. (2011). The good, the strong, and the accurate:Preschoolers' evaluations of informant attributes. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 110(4), 561-574.
Gelman, S. A. (2009). Learning from others:Children's construction of concepts. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 115-140.
Guerrero, S., Cascado, C., Sausa, M., & Enesco, I. (2017). My teacher is wrong:Preschoolers' opposition to non-conventional statements. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 39, 1-13.
Harris, P. L. (2007). Trust. Developmental Science, 10(1), 135-138.
Harris, P. L. (2012). Trusting what you're told:How children learn from others. Cambridge, MA:The Belknap Press/Harvard University Press.
Harris, P. L., & Koenig, M. A. (2006). Trust in testimony:How children learn about science and religion. Child Development, 77(3), 505-524.
Harris, P. L., Koenig, M. A., Corriveau, K. H., & Jaswal, V. K. (2018). Cognitive foundations of learning from testimony. Annual Review of Psychology, 69(1), 251-273.
Harris, P. L., Pasquini, E. S., Duke, S., Asscher, J. J., & Pons, F. (2006). Germs and angels:The role of testimony in young children's ontology. Developmental Science, 9(1), 76-96.
Hermes, J., Behne, T., Bich, A. E., Thielert, C., & Rakoczy, H. (2018). Children's selective trust decisions:Rational competence and limiting performance factors. Developmental Science, 21(2), e12527.
Hermes, J., Behne, T., & Rakoczy, H. (2015). The role of trait reasoning in young children's selective trust. Developmental Psychology, 51(11), 1574-1587.
Hume, D. (2009). An inquiry concerning human understanding (Lu, D. J., Trans.). Beijing, China:The Commercial Press. (Original work published 1748)
Jaffer, S., & Ma, L. (2015). Preschoolers show less trust in physically disabled or obese informants. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1524.
Jaswal, V. K. (2010). Believing what you're told:Young children's trust in unexpected testimony about the physical world. Cognitive Psychology, 61(3), 248-272.
Jaswal, V. K., Croft, A. C., Setia, A. R., & Cole, C. A. (2010). Young children have a specific, highly robust bias to trust testimony. Psychological Science, 21(10), 1541-1547.
Jaswal, V. K., & Kondrad, R. L. (2016). Why children are not always epistemically vigilant:Cognitive limits and social considerations. Child Development Perspectives, 10(4), 240-244.
Jaswal, V. K., & Neely, L. A. (2006). Adults don't always know best:Preschoolers use past reliability over age when learning new words. Psychological Science, 17(9), 757-758.
Jaswal, V. K., Pérez-Edgar, K., Kondrad, R. L., Palmquist, C. M., Cole, C. A., & Cole, C. E. (2014). Can't stop believing:Inhibitory control and resistance to misleading testimony. Developmental Science, 17(6), 965-976.
Johnston, A. M., Mills, C. M., & Landrum, A. R. (2015). How do children weigh competence and benevolence when deciding whom to trust? Cognition, 144, 76-90.
Koenig, M. A., Clément, F., & Harris, P. L. (2004). Trust in testimony:Children's use of true and false statements. Psychological Science, 15(10), 694-698.
Koenig, M. A., & Harris, P. L. (2005a). Preschoolers mistrust ignorant and inaccurate speakers. Child Development, 76(6), 1261-1277.
Koenig, M. A., & Harris, P. L. (2005b). The role of social cognition in early trust. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(10), 457-459.
Koenig, M. A., & Harris, P. L. (2007). The basis of epistemic trust:Reliable testimony or reliable sources? Episteme, 4(3), 264-284.
Koenig, M. A., & Sabbagh, M. A. (2013). Selective social learning:New perspectives on learning from others. Developmental Psychology, 49(3), 399-403.
Krogh-Jespersen, S., & Echols, C. H. (2012). The influence of speaker reliability on first versus second label learning. Child Development, 83(2), 581-590.
Landrum, A. R., Eaves, B. S. J., & Shafto, P. (2015). Learning to trust and trusting to learn:A theoretical framework. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(3), 109-111.
Landrum, A. R., Pflaum, A. D., & Mills, C. M. (2016). Inducing knowledgeability from niceness:Children use social features for making epistemic inferences. Journal of Cognition & Development, 17(5), 699-717.
Liu, D., Vanderbilt, K. E., & Heyman, G. D. (2013). Selective trust:Children's use of intention and outcome of past testimony. Developmental Psychology, 49(3), 439-445.
Lucas, A. J., Lewis, C., Pala, F. C., Wong, K., & Berridge, D. (2013). Social-cognitive processes in preschoolers' selective trust:Three cultures compared. Developmental Psychology, 49(3), 579-590.
Ma, L., & Ganea, P. A. (2010). Dealing with conflicting information:Young children's reliance on what they see versus what they are told. Developmental Science, 13(1), 151-160.
MacDonald, K., Schug, M., Chase, E., & Barth, H. (2013). My people, right or wrong? Minimal group membership disrupts preschoolers' selective trust. Cognitive Development, 28(3), 247-259.
Mills, C. M. (2013). Knowing when to doubt:Developing a critical stance when learning from others. Developmental Psychology, 49(3), 404-418.
Pasquini, E. S., Corriveau, K. H., Koenig, M., & Harris, P. L. (2007). Preschoolers monitor the relative accuracy of informants. Developmental Psychology, 43(5), 1216-1226.
Poulin-Dubois, D., & Brosseau-Liard, P. (2016). The developmental origins of selective social learning. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 25(1), 60-64.
Reet, J. V., Green, K. F., & Sobel, D. M. (2015). Preschoolers' theory-of-mind knowledge influences whom they trust about others' theories of mind. Journal of Cognition and Development, 16(3), 471-491.
Reid, T. (2009). An inquiry into the human mind on the principles of common sense (Li, D. F., Trans.). Hangzhou, China:Zhejiang University Press. (Original work published 1764)
Sabbagh, M. A., & Baldwin, D. A. (2001). Learning words from knowledgeable versus ignorant speakers:Links between preschoolers' theory of mind and semantic development. Child Development, 72(4), 1054-1070.
Scofield, J., & Behrend, D. A. (2008). Learning words from reliable and unreliable speakers. Cognitive Development, 23(2), 278-290.
Sobel, D. M., & Kushnir, T. (2013). Knowledge matters:How children evaluate the reliability of testimony as a process of rational inference. Psychological Review, 120(4), 779-797.
Taylor, M. G. (2013). Gender influences on children's selective trust of adult testimony. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 115(4), 672-690.
Terrier, N., Bernard, S., Mercier, H., & Clément, F. (2016). Visual access trumps gender in 3-and 4-year-old children's endorsement of testimony. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 146, 223-230.
Vanderbilt, K. E., Liu, D., & Heyman, G. D. (2011). The development of distrust. Child Development, 82(5), 1372-1380.
Wang, Y. (2012). The developmental mechanism of 3 to 5 years old children's selective trust ability (Unpublished master's thesis). Shenyang Normal University.
Wellman, H. M., & Liu, D. (2004). Scaling of theory of mind tasks. Child Development, 75(2), 523-541.
Yuan, M., Deng, Z., & Ji, P. (2013). Children's social epistemology:Children's selective trust in informants. Advances in Psychological Science, 21(3), 480-486.
Zhang, Y. H., & Zhu, L. Q. (2014). Epistemic trust:How preschoolers selectively learn from others. Advances in Psychological Science, 22(1), 86-96.
曹梦露, 龚文进, 汤永隆. (2012). 旁观者非言语线索对幼儿选择性信任的影响. 中国临床心理学杂志, 20(5), 613-615.
休谟. (1748/2009). 人类理智研究 (吕大吉译). 北京:商务印书馆.
里德. (1764/2009). 按常识原理探究人类心灵 (李涤非译). 杭州:浙江大学出版社.
王颖. (2012). 3~5岁幼儿选择性信任能力的发展机制 (硕士学位论文), 沈阳师范大学.
袁鸣, 邓铸, 季培. (2013). 儿童社会认识论:儿童对信息提供者的选择性信任. 心理科学进展, 21(3), 480-486.
张耀华, 朱莉琪. (2014). 认识性信任:学龄前儿童的选择性学习. 心理科学进展, 22(1), 86-96.
赵芳芳.(2015).3~5岁幼儿的选择性信任及其与心理理论的关系(硕士学位论文),西北师范大学,兰州.
[1] CHU Yue, LIU Xiping, XU Hui, TANG Weihai. Developmental Characteristics of Socially Shared Retrieval-induced Forgetting in Children [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2024, 40(2): 153-159.
[2] LIU Yanchun, DENG Yuting, ZHANG Xi. Sharing Behavior towards Different Recipients in Children with Intellectual Disabilities: The Role of Theory of Mind [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2024, 40(2): 160-168.
[3] LIANG Dandan, YAN Xiaomin, GE Zhilin. The Development of Emotion Recognition Ability in 4~8 Years Old Chinese Children with High-functioning Autism Based on Language Cues [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2024, 40(2): 169-175.
[4] SHI Mengmeng, REN Guiqin, SUN Junhong, ZHANG Xinxing. Effects of Vocabulary Type and Reading Ability on Reading Comprehension Monitoring in First Grade Pupils [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2024, 40(2): 207-214.
[5] LENG Xinyi, SU Mengmeng, LI Wenling, YANG Xiujie, XING Ailing, ZHANG Xianglin, SHU Hua. The Relation between Home Environment and Early Language Development in Rural China [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2024, 40(1): 8-18.
[6] ZHAO Jingwei, CHEN Xiaoxu, REN Liwen, GENG Zhe, XU Fuzhen. Parental Psychological Control and Children’s Anxiety: A Moderated Mediating Model [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2024, 40(1): 93-102.
[7] ZHU Naping, LIU Yanling, XIONG Hongmei, ZHAO Pan. Justice Comes Sooner or Later: The Development Characteristics of Children’s Fair Normative Executive Behavior in Different Resource Allocation Situations [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2023, 39(6): 772-780.
[8] GAO Zihui, JIAO Yu, WANG Xi, LIU Xiaocen. The Influence of Dynamic and Static Text Presentation of Electronic Picture Books on Children’s Reading Experience and Learning Effect [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2023, 39(6): 817-824.
[9] REN Liwen, MA Yuanchi, ZHANG Qingyao, ZHANG Lingling, XU Fuzhen. Reciprocal Relations between Parental Psychological Control and Children's School Adjustment: A Cross-lagged Analysis [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2023, 39(5): 635-644.
[10] WANG Yingjie, LUAN Jinxin, LI Yan. The Relationship between Maternal Parenting Stress and Preschool Children's Anxiety: The Mediating Effect of Mother-child Conflict and the Moderating Effect of Maternal Mindfulness [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2023, 39(5): 702-709.
[11] LI Tiantian, DONG Huiqin. Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict and Anxiety: The Mediating Effect of Attention to Positive and Negative Information and the Moderating Effect of Gender [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2023, 39(4): 488-496.
[12] YIN Xiaolan, ZHOU Lujun, ZHU Cuiying. The Effect of School Environment on the Rural Left-behind Children's Prosocial Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Psychological Capital and Life Satisfaction [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2023, 39(4): 497-504.
[13] JIN Xing, LIU Jinghong, MA Yue, YU Zhanyu. A Comparative Study on the Attentional Blink of Body Expression between Deaf and Normal Children [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2023, 39(3): 305-312.
[14] ZHAO Xian, WANG Zhihang, WANG Dongfang, YUAN Yanyun, YIN Xiayun, LI Zhihua. Developmental Trajectory of Prosocial Behavior in Impoverished Children during Early Adolescence: The Effects of Gender and Parenting Style Heterogeneity [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2023, 39(3): 323-332.
[15] LIU Shuang, LI Mei, FENG Xiaohang, ZHANG Xiangkui. A Longitudinal Study of Mastery Motivation and Competence in Early Childhood: The Moderating Effects of Types of Task and Temperament [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2023, 39(2): 161-172.
Viewed
Full text


Abstract

Cited
  Shared   
  Discussed   
No Suggested Reading articles found!
Copyright 2018 © Editorial office of Psychological Development and Education
Supported by Beijing Magtech Co.Ltd