"Will I Know More in the Future than I Know Now?" Preschoolers' Judgments about Changes in General Knowledge

Autor/inn/en	Atance, Cristina M.; Caza, Julian S.
Titel	"Will I Know More in the Future than I Know Now?" Preschoolers' Judgments about Changes in General Knowledge
Quelle	In: Developmental Psychology, 54 (2018) 5, S.857-865 (9 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0012-1649
DOI	10.1037/dev0000480
Schlagwörter	Preschool Children; Evaluative Thinking; Knowledge Level; Change; Comparative Analysis; Adults; Age Differences; Perspective Taking; Futures (of Society); Cognitive Development; Accuracy; Statistical Analysis; Foreign Countries; Canada + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Pre-school age; Preschool age; Child; Children; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Vorschulalter; Kind; Kinder; Vorschulkind; Vorschulkinder; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Wissensbasis; Wandel; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Zukunftsperspektive; Future; Society; Zukunft; Kognitive Entwicklung; Statistische Analyse; Ausland; Kanada
Abstract	An important aspect of perspective-taking ability is the appreciation that mental states such as beliefs, desires, and knowledge change over time. The current study focused specifically on 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds' understanding that they will have knowledge in the future that they do not currently possess--for example, that when they are grown-ups, they will know what the words on a newspaper say. We also compared this understanding to children's understanding that adults have knowledge that children do not. To address the possibility that children's correct responses stemmed from a general rule that "adults know everything," we also included questions to which adults could not know the answer. Results show that children's understanding that they will have knowledge in the future that they do not currently possess and that adults possess knowledge that children do not improves substantially during the preschool years. Moreover, only the 5-year-olds in our study acknowledged that certain things are "unknowable," even by adults. Finally, children's performance did not differ as a function of whether they were asked about their own future knowledge or an adult's current knowledge. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for theories of perspective-taking and mental state reasoning, future thinking, and children's motivation to learn. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01