Preschoolers' Selective Trust And Belief Revision

Preschoolers are in an important period of knowledge learning.The learning process of preschoolers can be regarded as a process of trust in the information provided by others.Selective trust is the trust judgment made by preschoolers based on the cognitive or social cues of informant when the preschoolers' initial belief conflicts with the testimony provided by informant.Preschoolers continue to learn new knowledge on the basis of existing knowledge,and learning also means constantly revising existing beliefs.Belief revision is the knowledge update of preschoolers after receiving new information(the testimony of others).In this process,children actively reorganize and change the content and structure of existing knowledge.Most previous studies have explored the characteristics of preschoolers' selective trust and belief revision during conflicts with different clues,ignoring preschoolers' initial knowledge structure.Piaget's theory of cognitive development proposes that preschoolers' development occurs constantly under the interaction of preschooler' initial knowledge and external environment.Therefore,this study highlights preschoolers' main role as receivers of information,pays attention to preschoolers' initial beliefs,and explores preschoolers' selective trust and belief revision based on the effects of internal and external factors.Some researchers have suggested that preschoolers can make trust judgment on others through at least two different strategies,namely cognitive cues and social cues.Cognitive and social characteristics of informants are very important for preschoolers to make trust judgment and belief revision,but their impact on preschoolers' selective trust and belief revision is also different.511 3-to-5-year-olds participated in the study and used a single information source paradigm.Study 1 mainly examined the characteristics of preschoolers' initial beliefs,study 2 explored preschoolers' selective trust and belief revision: the role of initial beliefs and cognitive cues,and study 3explored preschoolers' selective trust and belief revision: the role of initial beliefs and social cues.This study provides a valuable reference for educators and parents to understand preschoolers' learning discipline and promote scientific learning for preschoolers.Research showed that:(1)Preschoolers showed weak initial beliefs in 50%-50% hybrid animals naming judgment,and strong initial beliefs in 75%-25% hybrid animals naming judgment;(2)When the internal beliefs are weak,3-to-5-year-olds trusted reliable informant,but not trusted unreliable informant.In the face of informant with different moral qualities,3-year-olds not only trusted friendly informant,but also trusted unfriendly informant,4-year-olds only showed trust friendly informant,while5-year-olds only showed distrust in unfriendly informant;when the internal beliefs are strong,3-year-olds only trusted reliable informant,and had no obvious preference for friendly and unfriendly informant.From the age of 4,preschoolers not trusted informant;(3)When the internal beliefs are weak,3-to-5-year-olds adopted the testimony of the reliable informant,but not adopted the testimony of the unreliable informant.In the face of informant with different moral qualities,3-year-olds only adopted the testimony of friendly informant,4-and 5-year-olds showed tangled characteristics;Facing unfriendly informant,they refused to make decisions to revise beliefs;when the internal beliefs are strong,with age,preschoolers didn't belief revision,and 4years was the key age for change.(4)Compared with informant with negative valence,preschoolers trusted informant with positive valence and modified their beliefs based on informant'testimonies.