The Developmental Mechanism Of 3 To 5 Years Old　Children’s Selective Trust Ability

Selective trust ability is a kind of social cognitive ability, it makes individual can accordingto different convey information’s accuracy of informants in prior experimental period, selectivetrust the informant who convey information with high accuracy in their subsequent activities.The present study took 255 3~5 years old children as research objects, using multivariate causaldesign pattern, and two context-created observation experiments, exploring the developmentalmechanism of 3~5 years old children’s selective trust ability. Based on the analysis of the age ofchildren, informants convey information’s accuracy, as well as bystanders’non-verbal cues andother factors which can affect children’s selective trust ability, we explain the developmentalmechanism of 3~5 years old children’s selective trust ability from two angles of internal andexternal factors, and reach the following research conclusions: (1) The age of children impacttheir selective trust ability and mainly affect selective trust ability’s endorsement behavior, withthe growth of age, children’s selective trust ability’s endorsement behavior increasedsignificantly, 3 years old is the initial period, 4 years old is the transition period, 5 years old isthe peak period. (2) The informants convey information’s accuracy impact children’s selectivetrust ability and mainly affect selective trust ability’s endorsement behavior and the stability oftheir explicit judgment behavior, with the decrease of the difference of informants conveyinformation’s accuracy, children’s selective trust ability’s endorsement behavior and the stabilityof their explicit judgment behavior decreased significantly. (3) Bystanders’non-verbal cuesimpact children’s selective trust ability and mainly affect their selective trust ability’sendorsement behavior and the stability of their explicit judgment behavior, when the bystanders’non-verbal cues are consistent with informants convey information’s accuracy, children’sendorsement behavior and explicit judgment behavior’s stability increased obviously; when thebystanders’non-verbal cues are inconsistent with informants convey information’s accuracy,children’s endorsement behavior and explicit judgment behavior’s stability decreased obviously.(4) The age of children and bystanders’non-verbal cues have interactive effects on children’sselective trust ability. First, bystanders’non-verbal cues have different effects on different age groups of children’s selective trust ability, namely the bystanders’non-verbal cues have a greatereffect on 3 years old children’s selective trust ability; however, the bystanders’non-verbal cueshave relatively small effect on 4 and 5 years old children’s selective trust ability. Second, the ageof children has different effects on different bystanders’non-verbal cues groups of children’sselective trust ability, when there are no bystanders exist, the age of children impact theirselective trust ability obviously; when the bystanders’non-verbal cues are consistent withinformants convey information’s accuracy, the age of children shows certain influence onchildren’s selective trust ability; when the bystanders’non-verbal cues are inconsistent withinformants convey information’s accuracy, the age of children shows no clear influence onchildren’s selective trust ability.