Poster #20 - Children’s and Adult’s Reasoning About Other’s Intention to Learn Based on Knowledge States and Desire

• In Event: Poster Session 14

Abstract

There is evidence that young children’s conceptualization of learning is immature and continues to develop throughout childhood. For example, 4-year-olds seem to over-emphasize desire (e.g., did someone want to learn?) when judging learning, and have difficulties understanding learning requires actual knowledge change. In contrast, 6-year-olds better understand the relations between various mental states (e.g., attention, knowledge state) and learning (Jeong & Frye, 2020; Sobel et al., 2007). Few studies have investigated children’s reasoning about learning decisions based on multiple mental states. In the current study, we examined developmental changes in children's and adults’ reasoning about a story character’s need and intention to learn based on the character’s desire and knowledge states.

We tested 120 three- to seven-year-olds individually at a children’s museum. Each child was presented with 4 stories that varied in the characters’ knowledge state (knowledgeable vs. ignorant) and desire (want vs. not want to learn). Children were asked to judge and explain whether the character needs to and will try to learn. Additionally, 20 adults were tested online with the same stories and questions.

Using a generalized linear mixed-effects model, we analyzed the age*story*question (6X4X2) effects on responses. There was an age by story interaction (p < .001) indicating that older groups did not always outperform younger ones (Figure 1). Regardless of desire state, 3- to 5-year-olds scored below chance, whereas older groups were at chance when judging that a knowledgeable character did not need to learn. However, 3- to 6-year-olds were above chance judging an ignorant character needed to learn, but older groups were at chance. When a character has a negative desire (i.e., doesn’t want to learn), 3- to 5-year-olds were above chance predicting the person would try to learn, although they also predicted learning intention for those who already had the knowledge. Older groups predicted a negative-desire character would not try to learn, regardless of knowledge state.

The findings seem to contradict Jeong and Frye’s (2020) results showing that 5-year-olds could correctly judge learning intentions based on knowledge state. To explore the difference, we used post hoc tests to evaluate the effects of desire valence on the judgments. We found no impact of desire on the need judgments, but participants were more likely to predict learning intention based on desire than knowledge state (p-values < .0001). Additionally, the individual response patterns showed that over half of the 3- to 5-year-olds and 40% of the 6-year-olds mistakenly changed a negative desire to a positive one, whereas the older groups did not. It is possible that the younger groups outperformed the older ones on the ignorant stories by answering “yes” to all questions (Figure 2).

Data analysis is still ongoing, but the preliminary findings above provide evidence of developmental changes in the conceptualization of learning, which have implications for age-appropriate feedback about learning with children. Follow-up studies are being designed to examine children’s decisions about their own learning, which may have implications for supporting self-regulation skills of children in learning contexts.

Authors

• Lingyan Hu, University of Pennsylvania
  Presenting Author

• Douglas A Frye, University of Pennsylvania