Testimony Flashcards
What is the idealist critique of experienced-based learning?
Some things don’t seem to be able to be learned by General Learning Mechanisms, we need to postulate some a priori knowledge.
Piaget’s empiricist assumption that the child learns from direct experience comes from _________, while Chomsky’s idealist notion that innate knowledge is necessary for learning comes from _______
Piaget’s assumption that the child learns from direct experience comes from Rousseau, while Chomsky’s idea that innate knowledge is necessary for learning comes from Kant.
What principle does the visual cliff experiment demonstrate?
Social referencing. 1 year-olds seek information from parents about novel objects to guide their actions.
What four conditions must be met for an infant to be able to benefit from testimony?
- Infant needs to be able to decode signal
- Must understand referential quality of information
- Must appreciate potential for social communication of information.
- Infant must have skills to elicit information.
What did Koenig and Echols (2003) demonstrate about how infants’ looking responds to true and false labels?
When given a false name for a known object (e.g. picture of duck – ‘this is a chair’), infants’ looking oscillates between speaker and object. If true name, infant just looks at object. They seek clarification when there is a violation of what they know.
Unlike primates, who use symbols generally just to make requests, young children ask questions to gather information. This would seem to imply… 4 things
- They know they don’t know (consistent with social referencing)
- They are able to entertain various possible answers (counter-factual thinking)
- They know they can learn from others (first-hand experience is not always necessary)
- They understand language is a device for gathering information
At what rate do kids between 2.5 and 5 ask questions?
2.1 per minute in conversation. 67% were info Qs - What is…? That makes 10,000 explanation questions per year.
By the age of _ years, children can refer to past and present ________, and discuss the ______ of others (included stuffed toys) as well as asking about ________ and other mental states.
By the age of _ years, children can refer to past and present ________, and discuss the ______ of others (included stuffed toys) as well as asking about ________ and other mental states.
At what point do kids begin to privilege testimony over direct experience?
At 23 months, kids privilege their own direct knowledge of the world (I know where I left my toy). At 30 months, they privilege testimony of others.
How do labelling studies show how selective trust in testimony varies over early development?
Both 3- and 4 year-old children prefer the accurate labeller – they will endorse their labels more and say they know more.
3 year-olds are sensitive only to inaccuracy –if you make one mistake, you will be rejected.
4 year-olds are sensitive to accuracy –can judge who is more or less accurate
How does preference for novel vs accurate/inaccurate labels vary across early development?
3 year-olds don’t distinguish between accurate and novel labels. Don’t perceive novel labels as mistakes. 4 and 5 year-olds prefer accurate.
Only 5 year-olds prefer novel to inaccurate labels.
What other four sources of information do children use to establish that an informant is trustworthy?
- Bystander assent or dissent
- Accent: native accent stronger
- Majority opinion –if 2 against 3
- Consensus opinion – if lots of people nodding
How does trust in mother’s claims vary across attachment type?
Avoidants don’t privilege mother’s testimony at all.
Secure and resistant privilege mum for novel and ambiguous objects (hybrids).
Avoidant and secure children preferred testimony of the confederate when odds favoured her.
Resistant kids always try to favour mother’s testimony.
