3-057 - Changing Your Mind: When and Why Children Revise Their Beliefs

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Successful learning not only relies on the formation of new beliefs, but also on the ability to revise one’s existing beliefs in light of new information. For example, based on their observations, children might initially believe that the sun “turns off” at night and later, after receiving an adult’s testimony, revise their belief to a scientifically accurate view. Although an extreme degree of belief revision would leave any cognitive system highly unstable and vulnerable to false beliefs, complete unwillingness to revise beliefs would also handicap the system’s development. Despite the fact that learning during childhood involves an ongoing process of belief revision, there is little research on this topic. This symposium presents new findings characterizing children’s belief revision, with an emphasis on the role played by other people, including eye-witnesses, peers, and experts. Paper 1 shows that preschoolers are surprisingly more likely to revise their beliefs about improbable events when they receive second-hand testimony rather than a first-hand account. Paper 2 shows that children become less likely to revise their own beliefs after listening to a peer’s belief between ages 4 and 11, even when they have no previous knowledge about the topic. Paper 3 shows that children’s interest in seeking additional evidence in ambiguous situations increases between ages 5 and 9. Paper 4 investigates factors that correlate with individual differences in belief revision rates among 6- to 8-year-olds presented with an expert’s testimony. Together, these papers will present evidence of how belief revision influences, and is influenced by, development.

Sub Unit

• Social Cognition

Chairs

• Sara Haga, Universidade de Lisboa

• Judith H Danovitch, University of Louisville

Individual Presentations

• The Influence of First-hand and Second-hand Testimony on Children’s Belief in the Improbable - Presenting Author: Jonathan D. Lane, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Samuel Ronfard, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Diana El-Sherif, Harvard University; Paul Harris, Harvard University

• Belief Revision After Peer Disagreement in Childhood - Presenting Author: Sara Haga, Universidade de Lisboa; Kristina R Olson, University of Washington

• The Development of Belief Revision in Response to Evidence - Presenting Author: Justin Busch, University of Texas at Austin; Cristine H. Legare, University of Texas at Austin

• Factors Correlated with Children’s Willingness to Revise their Beliefs - Presenting Author: Judith H Danovitch, University of Louisville; Megan Fisher, Michigan State University; Jason S. Moser, Michigan State University