Koenig, Melissa A. and Clement, Fabrice and Harris, Paul L. (2004) Trust in testimony: children’s use of true and false statements. Psychological Science, 15 (10). pp. 694-698. ISSN 1467-9280

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Abstract

The extent to which young children monitor and use the truth of assertions to gauge the reliability of subsequent testimony was examined. Three- and 4-year-old children were presented with two informants, an accurate labeler and an inaccurate labeler. They were then invited to learn names for novel objects from these informants. The children correctly monitored and identified the informants on the basis of the truth of their prior labeling. Furthermore, children who explicitly identified the unreliable or reliable informant across two tasks went on to demonstrate selective trust in the novel information provided by the previously reliable informant. Children who did not consistently identify the unreliable or reliable informant proved indiscriminate.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	The extent to which young children monitor and use the truth of assertions to gauge the reliability of subsequent testimony was examined. Three- and 4-year-old children were presented with two informants, an accurate labeler and an inaccurate labeler. They were then invited to learn names for novel objects from these informants. The children correctly monitored and identified the informants on the basis of the truth of their prior labeling. Furthermore, children who explicitly identified the unreliable or reliable informant across two tasks went on to demonstrate selective trust in the novel information provided by the previously reliable informant. Children who did not consistently identify the unreliable or reliable informant proved indiscriminate.
Keywords:	Truth, Accuracy, Testimony
Subjects:	C Biological Sciences > C800 Psychology
Divisions:	College of Social Sciences > Faculty of Health & Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User:	Bev Jones
Date Deposited:	14 Sep 2007
Last Modified:	13 Mar 2013 08:25
URI:	http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/1181

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