ERIC Number: EJ1025326
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-3920
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Not All Past Events Are Equal: Biased Attention and Emerging Heuristics in Children's Past-to-Future Forecasting
Lagattuta, Kristin Hansen; Sayfan, Liat
Child Development, v84 n6 p2094-2111 Nov-Dec 2013
Four- to 10-year-olds and adults (N = 265) responded to eight scenarios presented on an eye tracker. Each trial involved a character who encounters a perpetrator who had previously enacted positive (P), negative (N), or both types of actions toward him or her in varying sequences (NN, PP, PN, and NP). Participants predicted the character's thoughts about the likelihood of future events, emotion type and intensity, and decision to approach or avoid. All ages made more positive forecasts for PP > NP > PN > NN trials, with differentiation by past experience widening with age. Age-related increases in weighting the most recent past event also appeared in eye gaze. Individual differences in biased visual attention correlated with verbal judgments. Findings contribute to research on risk assessment, person perception, and heuristics in judgment and decision making.
Descriptors: Children, Adults, Bias, Attention, Heuristics, Eye Movements, Prediction, Age Differences, Experience, Individual Differences, Evaluative Thinking, Decision Making, Correlation, Risk Assessment
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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
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A

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