Object Size Affects Children’s Inductive Inferences About Ownership and Preference

• In Event: Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Topic - Cognitive Processes

Abstract

Consider a large land mass with smaller islands nearby. Hume (1739) noted an asymmetry in our inferences about these bodies of land. We might assume that whomever owns the large mass also owns the islands. But we would not infer that whomever own an island also rules the larger mass. This observation is tied to the Roman doctrine of accession, wherein ownership of a principal good implies, or causes, ownership of accessory goods (Merrill, 2009).
We examined whether young children (total N=526) use accession to infer ownership and preferences. The accession principle suggests that exemplar size or prominence may affect inductive inferences—children may be more likely to project features from larger exemplars than from smaller ones. Investigating this question might also reveal a novel way that children infer ownership and preferences. For example, previous work shows that children infer ownership based on spatiotemporal information (e.g., Gelman et al. 2012), first possession (e.g., Blake & Harris, 2009; Friedman & Neary, 2008), and control of permission (Neary et al., 2009; Shaw et al., 2012). But, it is not known whether they also use accession.
In Experiment 1, 120 4-6-year-olds were told about a character who owned either a large pile of blocks, or just a single block (between-subjects). Children were then asked whether the character also owned a few surrounding blocks. A generalized estimating equations (GEE) model on children’s ownership judgments revealed a main effect of condition, p<.001, but no effect of age, and no interaction, ps≥.166. Children were more likely to attribute ownership in the big (58%) than small (35%) condition.
In Experiment 2, we examined whether this effect generalizes to other types of objects. We showed 258 4-7-year-olds stories about four object sets: blocks, toy cars, gems, and apples. In each story, a character owned a large or small item (between-subjects) and children judged whether the character owned surrounding items. A GEE model revealed main effects of condition, p<.001, set, p=.002, and age, p=.014, and a conditionXset interaction, p=.009; see Figure 1. Children were more likely to attribute ownership in the big versus small condition, and the overall number of ownership judgements decreased with age. The interaction resulted because the effect of size was significant in all sets, but larger for some; see Figure 2.
Finally, Experiment 3 examined whether accession also affects how children infer preferences. We showed 148 4-7-year-olds the stories from Experiment 2, but without mentioning ownership. Instead the character liked the main item, and children judged whether the character also liked the surrounding items. A GEE model revealed main effects of condition, p<.001, set, p=.048, and age, p=.001; see Figure 1. Similar to the previous experiment, children were more likely to attribute preferences in the big versus small condition, and the overall number of preference judgements decreased with age.
Together, our findings show that young children utilize the principle of accession to infer ownership and preferences. These findings are informative about how children use inductive reasoning to make such judgements given minimal information.

Authors

• Emily Elizabeth Stonehouse, University of Waterloo
  Presenting Author

• Ori Friedman, University of Waterloo
  Non-Presenting Author