The cognitive mechanisms underlying selective learning in early childhood

幼儿经常接触到关于他们周围世界的新信息。虽然他们有容易上当受骗的名声，但研究表明，即使在生命的最初几年，幼儿也可以评估信息来源，并选择性地从某些来源而不是其他来源学习。这可以被认为是批判性思维的一种非常早期的形式。本研究的目的是探索选择性学习能力的认知机制，主要是在幼儿期，但也贯穿整个发展。 为了研究这一点，将进行两个系列的实验。第一系列的实验将调查儿童及以后的选择性学习能力的相关因素和预测因素。第一组实验将评估在选择性学习能力方面是否存在稳定的个体差异--换句话说，在一种选择性学习情况下倾向于精明的儿童是否在其他学习情况下也表现出上级选择性学习。如果在不同的选择性学习能力中发现了稳定的个体差异，将进行额外的实验来检查哪些认知能力预测这些个体差异。假设的预测因素包括心理理论和执行功能;其他能力的贡献也将被评估。 第二个系列的实验，专注于学龄前儿童（年龄18个月至5岁），将调查的作用，理解和属性的知识，以个人在儿童的选择性信任的能力。学龄前儿童倾向于信任那些表现出知识线索的人，例如，有提供准确（而不是不准确）信息的历史，或者语言和非语言的自信线索。然而，目前还不清楚他们是否理解这些可观察到的线索背后的知识的心理状态，如果是这样，他们在什么年龄发展这种理解。为了探索这一点，一些研究将测试儿童是否根据个人表达的知识线索形成对知识或无知的期望。 这项研究计划将填补目前关于儿童早期学习技能的文献空白，并将促进我们对重要的早期批判性思维能力的机制的理解。这项工作的结果将有助于家长和教育专业人员制定更好的方法来帮助幼儿早期学习和发展。

Young children are constantly exposed to new information about the world around them. Though they have a reputation to be gullible, research has demonstrated that even in the first few years of their lives young children can evaluate sources of information and selectively prefer to learn from some sources rather than others. This may be considered a very early form of critical thinking. The purpose of the current research is to explore the cognitive mechanisms underlying selective learning abilities, primarily in early childhood but also throughout development. In order to investigate this, two series of experiments will be conducted. A first series of experiments will investigate correlates and predictors of selective learning abilities in childhood and beyond. A first set of experiments will assess whether there are stable individual differences in selective learning abilities - in other words, whether children who tend to be savvy in one type of selective learning situation also show superior selective learning across other learning situations. If stable individual differences are found across different selective learning abilities, additional experiments will be conducted to examine what cognitive abilities predict these individual differences. Hypothesized predictors include theory of mind and executive function; the contributions of other abilities will also be evaluated. A second series of experiments, focusing on preschool-age children (ages 18 months to 5 years), will investigate the role of the ability to understand and attribute knowledge to individuals in children's selective trust. Preschoolers tend to prefer to trust individuals who show cues of knowledge, for instance having a history of providing accurate (rather than inaccurate) information, or verbal and nonverbal cues of confidence. Yet, it is unclear whether they understand the mental state of knowledge underlying these observable cues, and if so at what age they develop this understanding. To explore this, several studies will test whether children form expectations of knowledge or ignorance based on individuals' expressed knowledge cues. This program of research will fill a gap in the current literature on children's early learning skills and will advance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying important early critical thinking abilities. Findings from this work will help parents and education professionals develop ways of better scaffolding young children's early learning and development.