A Systematic Examination of How a Speaker's Linguistic and Paralinguistic Cues Affect Children's and Adults' Learning and Memory

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Summary*** Our lives involve learning on a regular basis. From learning new words to learning complex scientific principles, humans routinely rely on others to provide information. Unfortunately, people sometimes offer misinformation out of ignorance, uncertainty, or deception. Fortunately, there are several cues people can use to decide whether someone is providing credible information. *** One of the most readily observable cues is the degree of confidence or uncertainty displayed by an individual. Although confidence is not a perfect indication of credibility, research shows that a person's level of confidence in their statements or actions tends to co-vary with their actual knowledge. Cues to one's confidence or uncertainty include linguistic cues (e.g., I think' vs. I know'), nonverbal cues (e.g., facial expressions, shoulder shrugging), and paralinguistic cues (e.g., the intonation, pitch, or rate of speech). A wealth of research has examined how these different perceptual cues influence adults' learning and decision-making, however, very little is known about how, and when, each of these cues influences children's learning and development. *** The primary aims of the experiments in the current proposal are to 1) delineate the developmental origins and trajectory of how people are influenced by each of the different linguistic and paralinguistic cues that often correlate with a person's level of confidence (i.e., intonation, pitch, volume, disfluency, verb choice, and rate of speech), 2) examine how each cue influences learning and memory in different learning contexts (e.g., learning facts versus making moral decisions), and 3) test specific methods for improving people's sensitivity to these speech cues to foster learning and decision-making. *** Representative samples of children at different ages (ages 2 and up), as well as samples of adults, will be presented with conflicting information from two people whose speech differs in one linguistic or paralinguistic cue. In each experiment, I examine what information is encoded (learned), and whether participants' memory is enhanced by the different cues. Across experiments, I vary which cue is manipulated, or present conflicting cues, to determine which cue is most influential at different ages. *** Key questions that guide the proposal include: At what age are children first sensitive to each of these different linguistic and paralinguistic cues? When different cues are pitted against each other, which has the largest impact on learning? Can we train individuals to be more sensitive to specific speech cues to foster learning and decision-making? *** The proposed research directly advances our understanding of children's learning, memory, and cognitive development. It also provides important insights into children's and adults' speech perception and has several practical applications for fostering learning and improving decision-making.