Controlling the message: Preschoolers’ use of information to teach and deceive others

Frontiers in Psychology

Marjorie eRhodes¹  Annie eChen¹  Elizabeth eBonawitz²  Leyla eCaglar²  Patrick eShafto³ 

[1] New York University;Rutgers University;University of Louisville;

关键词: Teaching;    deception;    cognitive development;    pedagogy;    Evidence selection;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00867

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Effective communication entails the strategic presentation of information; good communicators present representative information to their listeners—information that is both consistent with the concept being communicated and also unlikely to support another concept a listener might consider. The present study examined whether preschool-age children effectively select information to manipulate others’ semantic knowledge, by testing how children choose information to teach or deceive their listeners. Results indicate that preschoolers indeed effectively select information to meet some specific communicative goals. When asked to teach others, children selected information that effectively spanned the concept of interest and avoided overly restrictive or overly general information; when asked to deceive others, they selected information consistent with the intended deceptive messages under some circumstances. Thus, preschool children possess remarkable abilities to select the best information to manipulate what others believe.

【 授权许可】

Unknown