Know Thy Audience: Children Teach Basic or Complex Facts Depending on Their Listener’s Maturity

• In Event: Social Learning and Information Processing

Abstract

Teaching is a powerful mechanism for humans to faithfully propagate knowledge from one generation to another (Caldwell et al., 2018; Dean et al., 2012). The type of information adults choose to teach is influenced by various characteristics of the learner, such as age, aptitude, or interest. While prior work has shown that children tailor their teaching to the knowledge and competence of the learner (Baer & Friedman, 2018; Gweon, Shafto, & Schulz, 2018), little is known about whether children modulate their teaching as a function of the learner’s maturity. In two experiments (N = 136, 68 female), a group of 5-year-olds and 7-year-olds were asked to choose between two types of facts, basic and complex, to teach learners of varying levels of maturity (see Figure 1). In 12 teaching trials, children were presented with two facts about an animal (e.g., “Parrots have feathers” / “Parrots have strong, curved beaks”) and asked to select one fact to teach a learner (baby or adult). In both experiments, 7-year-olds, but not 5-year-olds, modulated the complexity of their teaching as a function of the learner, teaching significantly more complex facts to an adult and more basic facts to a baby (see Figure 2). Findings from Experiment 1 suggest that while older children flexibly adjusted the complexity of the information based on the learner’s maturity, they are better at doing so for adults than babies. This leaves open the possibility that older children’s personal preference for complex information made it easier for them to select appropriate teaching material for adults. Therefore, Experiment 2 included a preference control condition in which children were asked which fact they would like to learn themselves. Furthermore, to determine whether children’s maturity-contingent teaching was associated with their ability to reflect on why they made specific pedagogical decisions, we asked children why they chose to teach the fact they taught (“why” task). Results revealed that while both 5- and 7-year-olds had a personal preference for complex facts, they overcame this preference and taught significantly less complex information to a baby audience, for whom they deemed basic information more appropriate. Children’s responses were not predicted by their responses on the “why” task, indicating that 5- and 7-year-olds engage in selective teaching independent of any capacity to reflect on and give reasons for their pedagogical decisions. The findings suggest that children are capable of making adaptive pedagogical choices on the basis of a learner’s maturity alone, and that a significant developmental shift occurs between the ages of 5 and 7.

Authors

• Fanxiao Wani Qiu, University of Southern California
  Presenting Author

• Canan Ipek, University of Southern California

• Elizabeth Pendley Gottesman, University of Southern California

• Henrike Moll, University of Southern California