Children weigh the number of informants and perceptual uncertainty when identifying objects

Article Article scientifique Article Children weigh the number of informants and perceptual uncertainty when identifying objects eng 2015 author Bernard Stéphane 133281 author Harris Paul 648860 author Terrier Nathalie 684054 author Clement Fabrice 585759 70-81 10.1016/j.jecp.2015.03.009 0022-0965 http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0022096515000697 The aim of this study was to evaluate how 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 150) identify an object when they are confronted with conflicting evidence, notably when the available perceptual evidence is contradicted by the testimony of either a lone informant or a three-informant consensus. Results showed that (a) 5-year-olds were more likely than 3- or 4-year-olds to rely on the perceptual evidence, ignoring claims made by the informants; (b) the three-informant consensus had more impact than a single informant for all age groups; and (c) children were more likely to make a perception-based response if the stimulus was perceptually unambiguous rather than equivocal with respect to its identity. Moreover, when children's task was to identify equivocal stimuli, they endorsed the three-informant consensus more than the lone informant. In contrast, when they needed to identify unambiguous stimuli, the number of informants did not influence children's responses. Taken together, the results show that the tendency to resist testimony on the basis of perceptual evidence increases with age. Moreover, preschoolers monitor both the characteristics of their informants and the relative ambiguity of the perceptual stimuli when they need to weigh verbal testimony against perceptual evidence. Testimony selection Trust Uncertainty monitoring Biased perception Consensus Preschoolers Dewey 128.37 15 Centre interfacultaire en sciences affectives 0D8 false 1241 Affective sciences Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 136 0a158b1a-8f5f-4006-9418-a79c8932839f Article (Published version) Restricted 1-s2.0-S0022096515000697-main.pdf 787374 application/pdf restrictedAccess Centres et instituts / Centre interfacultaire en sciences affectives

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Children weigh the number of informants and perceptual uncertainty when identifying objects	Journal of Experimental Child Psychology			2015	487	0

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Terrier, Nathalie