Poster #15 - "I know a lot, but he knows more": Children’s absolute and relative knowledge self-evaluations

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

Intellectual Humility involves recognizing the limitations of one’s own knowledge and being open to seeking out information from others who may know more. However, people can think about their knowledge in different ways. For example, 6-year-olds are more likely to overestimate their explanatory knowledge than older children (Mills & Keil, 2004). Yet 6-year-olds understand the concept of expertise (Lutz & Keil, 2002) and sometimes defer to an expert rather than answering difficult questions themselves (Aguiar et al., 2012; Danovitch et al., 2019). The current study explored how children ages 6-10 (N = 75) perceive their knowledge about scientific topics in absolute terms or relative to an expert.
 
In the absolute knowledge task, children rated their ability to answer explanatory “how” questions about 6 familiar (e.g., how cats seek in the dark), and 6 unfamiliar (e.g., how funiculars move along a track) animals and vehicles using a 5-point scale. In the relative knowledge task, children rated their knowledge compared to an animal or vehicle expert (depending on the item) for the same 12 questions (e.g., “do you think you know more/less/same as this animal expert about how cats see in the dark? A little or a lot more/less?”), yielding a 5-point scale. The order of the tasks was counterbalanced between participants. Children also completed the Picture Vocabulary Test (PVT) as a measure of verbal knowledge.
 
We developed separate Mixed Effects Models for each type of rating where the fixed effect in each model was familiarity of item (familiar or unfamiliar), and PVT scores and age (centered at their mean) were included as continuous predictors. The models also included random effects for child and item, and 2-way interactions between familiarity and age or PVT scores. In model one, children’s absolute knowledge ratings differed based on familiarity of item, (F(1, 771.4) = 5.90, p = .01), and PVT scores, (F(1, 72) = 5.30, p = .025), where children rated their knowledge higher for familiar than unfamiliar items and children with higher PVT scores gave themselves lower absolute knowledge ratings, ps < .026. In model two, children’s relative knowledge ratings differed based on item familiarity, (F(1, 832.3) = 7.42, p = .007), and PVT scores, (F(1,72.1) = 5.05, p = .028), as well as age, (F(1, 70.5) = 8.23, p = .005). Again, children rated their relative knowledge as higher for familiar items, and children with higher PVT scores rated their knowledge lower relative to the expert, ps < .029. Older children also gave lower relative knowledge ratings relative to the expert than younger children, p = .007.
 
These results replicate prior findings indicating that children with stronger verbal knowledge rate their own knowledge more conservatively than children with weaker verbal knowledge (Danovitch et al., 2019). They also show that children’s knowledge ratings are sensitive to familiarity, such that children feel more knowledgeable about familiar topics than unfamiliar ones. These findings have implications for understanding the conditions under which children overestimate their own knowledge and when they seek out others’ expertise.

Authors

• Khushboo S. Patel, University of Louisville
  Presenting Author

• Allison June Williams, Boston University

• Cole A Cassidy, University of Lousiville

• Natalie B Quintero-Flores, The University of Texas at Dallas

• Candice Mills, The University of Texas at Dallas

• Judith H Danovitch, University of Louisville