ERIC Number: EJ740633
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006
Pages: 13
Abstractor: Author
Reference Count: 22
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-3920
Children's Ability to Impute Inferentially Based Knowledge
Rai, Roshan; Mitchell, Peter
Child Development, v77 n4 p1081-1093 Jul-Aug 2006
Do young children appreciate the importance of access to premises when judging what another person knows? In Experiment 1, 5-year-olds (N=31) were sensitive to another person's access to premises when predicting that person's ability to point to a target after eliminating alternatives in a set of 3 cartoon characters. Experiment 2 replicated the finding when 5- to 6-year-olds (N=102) judged who the other person thought the target was, and whether the other person knew who the target was. Experiment 3 demonstrated that children aged 57 years (N=107) more successfully imputed inference by elimination than syllogistical inferential knowledge. Findings suggest that an early understanding of inference by elimination offers a route into understanding that people can sometimes gain knowledge without direct perceptual access.
Descriptors: Inferences, Cartoons, Young Children, Access to Information, Age Differences, Prediction, Knowledge Level, Logical Thinking, Thinking Skills
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers: N/A

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