Are Young Children Adaptive Decision Makers? A Study of Age Differences in Information Search Behavior
Are Young Children Adaptive Decision Makers? A Study of Age Differences in Information Search Behavior
复制标题
幼儿是适应性决策者吗？
DOI：
10.1086/209419
复制
发表时间：
1995
影响因子：
7.2
通讯作者：
Deborah Roedder John
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Jennifer Gregan;Deborah Roedder John
幼儿作为决策者的适应能力有多强？尽管关于成年消费者的类似问题经常被提出，但对幼儿消费决策能力的性质关注很少。本研究旨在探讨在预决性搜索行为背景下幼儿决策技能的适应性问题。本文具体考察了幼儿在多大程度上能够使他们的搜索行为适应决策环境中不同水平的搜索成本和收益。我们报告了两个实验的结果，这两个实验是在四到七岁的儿童中进行的，在这两个实验中，我们考察了儿童在一个名为《奖品之家》的游戏中的搜索活动。这个游戏需要在两个“房子”之间做出选择，每个“窗户”后面都藏着奖品。孩子们被允许在做出选择之前在窗户后面搜索以发现奖品，这样做的代价和好处不同。关于不同年龄段儿童进行搜索的范围的数据表明，适应能力在学龄前阶段以有限的方式出现，并在此后迅速发展。
How adaptive are young children as decision makers? Although similar questions have been raised frequently with regard to adult consumers, very little attention has been paid to the nature of consumer decision-making abilities in young children. The purpose of this article is to explore the emergence of adaptivity in young children's decision-making skills in the context of predecisional search behavior. This article specifically examines the extent to which young children are capable of adapting their search behavior to differing levels of search costs and benefits in the decision environment. We report results from two experiments, conducted with children aged four to seven years, in which we examined children's search activity in the context of a game called “house of prizes.” The game involved making a choice between two “houses” that contained prizes hidden behind each “window.” Children were allowed to search behind the windows to uncover the prizes prior to making their choices, with differing costs and benefits of doing so. Data regarding the extent of search conducted by children of different ages suggest that the ability to adapt emerges during the preschool years in a limited fashion and develops rapidly thereafter.