Impact Of Intention And Outcome Of Past Testimony And The Age Feature Of The Informants On Preschoolers’ Selective Trust

To acquire vast amount of culturally accumulated knowledge, humans must learn fromothers and obtain information from others. The ability to obtain information from otherspermits humans to learn more and to do so faster than if they were dependent on first personexperience. Learning from others, however, involves several potential pitfalls since theinformation obtained could be inaccurate. The ability to distinguish the accuracy of theinformation of others plays a crucial role for the personal social interaction. Childhood is oneof the important periods of intellectual development and knowledge learning. In this period,there is a large number of information from outside. The ability to determine and identify theinformation and the source of information is crucial for children. A growing number ofresearch shows, preschool children can be realized the difference between differenceinformation providers. They have has the ability to criticize and doubt in the information andthe source of information. The children accept information from others selectively.The subjects of this study was from4ordinary kindergartens in Baotou, Inner Mongolia,with the majority of Han children (97%). A total of143preschool children participated in theexperiment, and11of them were excluded. Finally, a total of132children were effectivelytested.In this study, using the design of experiments and interviews, using a2*2*2factorialdesign to explore the impact of Intention and outcome of past testimony and the agecharacteristics of the informants on preschoolers’ selective trust.The main conclusions were as follows:(1) There is no significant difference in gender and age of5and6years old children’sselective trust. During this period the children’ s selective trust has been basically formed,they choose whether trust others have been able to judge and not indiscriminate accept.(2)5and6years old children have been able to understand the information providers’help intention in the selective trust. Under the same condition, more choose to believe theinformation providers who have a positive intention. When they decide whether to trust others,they consider not only the previous results but also others’ mental state.(3)5,6years old children have been able to understand the difference betweendifference information providers of outcome of past helping testimony in selective trust. Under the same circumstances, more children to choose to believe the information providerwho has positive helping results. It is worth noting, children are not found someone wentawry in the last mission only once and never believe this person. Children can measure thecredibility in others. They also consider the reasons of the error.(4)5,6years old children in selective trust, have been considering the age feature ofinformation provider. Under the same condition, they are more likely to choose to believe inadults instead of child. In the positive results--positive intentions, negative results--negativeintent of these two cases, children treat the information provider is the difference between anadult or child is not great. And in positive results--negative intent, negative results--positiveintent of these two cases, children treat two results have obvious difference.In summary, this study is a basic research. Trying to describe the impact of Intention andoutcome of past testimony and the age feature of the informants on preschoolers’ selectivetrust. Provides a theoretical basis and empirical data for future study of this aspect.