The Development of Children's Attributions of Knowledge

儿童知识归因的发展

• 批准号: RGPIN-2017-03794
• 负责人: Friedman, Ori
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=709508
• 关键词: Development; Children; Attributions; Knowledge

The proposed research investigates a basic human capacityour ability to recognize whether others have knowledge. This ability is involved in many everyday activities. For example, we consider others' knowledge (and our own) when predicting others' behavior, communicating, deciding whether to assign blame, and seeking information. In this proposal, I outline four series of experiments that investigate the development of this ability in young children. The first series examines whether children view knowledge as a distinct mental state, or instead view it as a type of belief (i.e., one held with certainty). Answering this question will be informative about the organization of young children's representation of mental states, and about the origins of our notions of knowledge. The other three series of experiments examine how children attribute knowledge. All three series explore the theory that children view knowledge as stemming from direct information about the world, and that they deny knowledge when others only have indirect information. One series of experiments tests whether children are more likely to attribute knowledge to agents with specific information about a particular item than to agents whose conclusions about the item are drawn from more general information about a larger sample. This series of experiments is informed by research on people's judgment and decision-making. The next series of experiments tests whether children are more likely to attribute knowledge to agents who assert the presence of an object or property than to agents who assert its absence. This line of research connects children's knowledge attributions with cognitive research on differences between how people process affirmations and negations. The final series investigates further ways of manipulating the directness of information, and examines whether the directness theory may help explain two difficulties that children face in attributing knowledge to othersrecognizing that inferences often provide knowledge, and that ambiguous information typically does not. Together, these four series of experiments will be informative about the nature and development of our capacity to attribute mental states to others. This research will also increase our understanding of how children respond to different kinds of information. Finally, although this research will principally concern children's theory of mind, the findings will inform investigations of theory of mind in other populations.

拟议的研究调查了人类的基本能力——识别他人是否拥有知识的能力。这种能力涉及许多日常活动。例如，在预测他人的行为、沟通、决定是否归咎以及寻求信息时，我们会考虑他人的知识（以及我们自己的知识）。 在这个提案中，我概述了四个系列的实验，研究幼儿这种能力的发展。第一个系列研究儿童是否将知识视为一种独特的心理状态，或者将其视为一种信念（即确信的信念）。回答这个问题将有助于了解幼儿心理状态表征的组织，以及我们知识概念的起源。 其他三个系列的实验研究儿童如何归因知识。所有三个系列都探讨了这样一种理论：儿童将知识视为源于有关世界的直接信息，而当其他人只有间接信息时，他们就会否认知识。一系列实验测试了儿童是否更有可能将知识归因于具有特定项目特定信息的代理，而不是那些从更大样本的更一般信息中得出有关该项目的结论的代理。这一系列的实验是基于对人们的判断和决策的研究。接下来的一系列实验将测试儿童是否更有可能将知识归因于断言某个物体或财产存在的代理人，而不是断言其不存在的代理人。这一系列研究将儿童的知识归因与人们处理肯定和否定方式之间差异的认知研究联系起来。最后一个系列进一步研究了操纵信息直接性的方法，并检验了直接性理论是否有助于解释儿童在将知识归因于他人时所面临的两个困难，因为他们认识到推论通常会提供知识，而模糊的信息通常不会提供知识。 这四个系列的实验将共同提供有关我们将心理状态归因于他人的能力的性质和发展的信息。这项研究还将增进我们对儿童如何应对不同类型信息的理解。最后，虽然这项研究主要关注儿童的心理理论，但研究结果将为其他人群的心理理论调查提供信息。