Selective information seeking after a single encounter.
In 3 experiments, the authors examined whether a single act of testimony can inform children's subsequent information seeking. In Experiment 1, participants saw one informant give a correct and another informant give an incorrect answer to a question, assessed who was right (wrong), and decided to whom to address a 2nd question. Adults and 7-year-olds but not 4-year-olds selected the previously correct informant. In Experiment 2, after assessing which informant was (not) very good at answering, even 4-year-olds selected the previously correct informant. In Experiment 3, in the absence of external demands to evaluate the informants, 7-year-olds and adults still selected the previously correct informant. Thus, a single encounter is sufficient for 7-year-olds and adults to engage in selective information seeking and trait labels enable 4-year-olds to do so too.
Fitneva
Stanka A
SA
Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada. fitneva@queensu.ca
Dunfield
Kristen A
KA
D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D002666:Psychology, Child; D055815:Young Adult