An Investigation of the Epistemic and Social Credibility Cues Guiding Children’s Selective Social Learning

Abstract

As inherently social beings, children’s acquisition of knowledge often stems from the testimony of others. However, not all sources of information are equally reliable. Selective learning refers to an individual’s propensity to rely on one source of information over another. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to shed light on the ways in which children interpret credibility cues that guide their selective learning patterns. As such, Study 1 explored how children interpret informant confidence cues. Study 2, which was run concurrently with Study 1, analyzed children’s interpretation of informant credibility when cues of accuracy and confidence were conflicting. Finally, Study 3 investigated the cue of explicit informant disagreement and its effect on children’s selective learning patterns and informant attributions. Findings from Study 1 (n = 84) suggest that school-aged children, but not preschoolers, expect confident informants to be knowledgeable. Furthermore, Study 2 (n = 87) results show that when accuracy conflicts with confidence, accuracy drives 3- to 8-year-old children’s knowledge attributions. Findings from Study 3 (n = 111) suggest that 5- to 8-year-old children do not base their learning decisions on the cue of disagreement despite attributing significantly more confidence and less benevolence to a discordant informant. In all, these studies shed light on the developmental course of children’s selective learning, a skill that is indispensable in a world wherein children must carefully evaluate the reliability of others’ testimony.