Abstract
One primary value of testimony lies in its ability to extend our powers of observation. Do children credit more knowledge to speakers whose testimony goes beyond firsthand observation? The current study investigated 3- to 8-year-old children's (N = 180) and adults’ (N = 20) knowledge attributions to speakers who made claims regarding perceptually evident features of a novel animal (e.g., “is brown”) or claims regarding perceptually absent features (e.g., “eats insects”). By 7 years of age, children and adults attributed more knowledge to speakers who discussed telescopic information and generalized their knowledge to other domains. Because the knowledge base of child listeners expands with age, they place increased value on telescopic information and the speakers who provide it.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 105652 |
Journal | Journal of Experimental Child Psychology |
Volume | 231 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2023 Elsevier Inc.
Keywords
- Cognitive development
- Epistemic attributions
- Generality
- Knowledge
- Testimonial learning
- Verifiability