responses to mislabelling

[Deborah Kelemen]

Dear Jim,

There is a really lovely paper by Melissa Koenig, 
Fabrice Clément, and Paul Harris on this in a 
recent Psych Science (Vol 15(10), Oct 2004. pp. 
694-698). Abstract follows. I hope this helps.

Best,

Deb


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.


At 3:46 PM +0000 2/22/05, James Russell wrote:
>Dear Colleagues,
>
>I vaguely recall there being research into young 
>children's reactions when adults deliberately 
>mislabel objects -- such as calling a cat a 
>canary.  Can anyone enlighten me?
>
>Jim Russell
>Cambridge, UK


--
Deborah Kelemen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Boston University
Department of Psychology
64 Cummington Street
Boston MA 02215

Email: dkelemen at bu.edu
Office Phone: (617) 353-2758
Child Cognition Lab Phone: (617) 358-1738
Fax: (617) 353-6933
URL: http://www.bu.edu/childcognition
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