Can Children Balance the Size of a Majority with the Quality of their Information?

Jane Hu; Andrew Whalen; Daphna Buchsbaum; Tom Griffiths; Fei Xu

Can Children Balance the Size of a Majority with the Quality of their Information?

Jane Hu, Andrew Whalen, Daphna Buchsbaum, Tom Griffiths, Fei Xu

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

We investigate how children balance the quality of informants' knowledge with the number of endorsements when deciding which of two boxes contains the better option. When group numbers are equal, children choose boxes endorsed by informants with visual access over informants with hearsay (Experiment 1), but are at chance when group size conflicts with quality of knowledge (Experiments 2 and 3). This suggests that children tend to conform to a majority opinion, compared to adults (Experiment 4) and a normative computational model. These studies suggest that preschoolers consider the testimony of multiple informants and evaluate their knowledge sources, but may assume that informants are more individually informative than they are.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2015
Editors	David C. Noelle, Rick Dale, Anne Warlaumont, Jeff Yoshimi, Teenie Matlock, Carolyn D. Jennings, Paul P. Maglio
Publisher	The Cognitive Science Society
Pages	956-961
Number of pages	6
ISBN (Electronic)	9780991196722
State	Published - 2015
Externally published	Yes
Event	37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Mind, Technology, and Society, CogSci 2015 - Pasadena, United States Duration: Jul 23 2015 → Jul 25 2015

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2015

Conference

Conference	37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Mind, Technology, and Society, CogSci 2015
Country/Territory	United States
City	Pasadena
Period	7/23/15 → 7/25/15

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Artificial Intelligence
Computer Science Applications
Human-Computer Interaction
Cognitive Neuroscience

Cite this

Hu, J., Whalen, A., Buchsbaum, D., Griffiths, T., & Xu, F. (2015). Can Children Balance the Size of a Majority with the Quality of their Information? In D. C. Noelle, R. Dale, A. Warlaumont, J. Yoshimi, T. Matlock, C. D. Jennings, & P. P. Maglio (Eds.), Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2015 (pp. 956-961). (Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2015). The Cognitive Science Society.

Hu, Jane ; Whalen, Andrew ; Buchsbaum, Daphna et al. / Can Children Balance the Size of a Majority with the Quality of their Information?. Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2015. editor / David C. Noelle ; Rick Dale ; Anne Warlaumont ; Jeff Yoshimi ; Teenie Matlock ; Carolyn D. Jennings ; Paul P. Maglio. The Cognitive Science Society, 2015. pp. 956-961 (Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2015).

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title = "Can Children Balance the Size of a Majority with the Quality of their Information?",

abstract = "We investigate how children balance the quality of informants' knowledge with the number of endorsements when deciding which of two boxes contains the better option. When group numbers are equal, children choose boxes endorsed by informants with visual access over informants with hearsay (Experiment 1), but are at chance when group size conflicts with quality of knowledge (Experiments 2 and 3). This suggests that children tend to conform to a majority opinion, compared to adults (Experiment 4) and a normative computational model. These studies suggest that preschoolers consider the testimony of multiple informants and evaluate their knowledge sources, but may assume that informants are more individually informative than they are.",

author = "Jane Hu and Andrew Whalen and Daphna Buchsbaum and Tom Griffiths and Fei Xu",

note = "Funding Information: Acknowledgements. This research was supported by John Templeton Foundation Grant #40128, ESRC Grant [ES/K009540/1] awarded to DB and a NSF GRFP awarded to JH. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2015.All rights reserved.; 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Mind, Technology, and Society, CogSci 2015 ; Conference date: 23-07-2015 Through 25-07-2015",

year = "2015",

language = "English (US)",

series = "Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2015",

publisher = "The Cognitive Science Society",

pages = "956--961",

editor = "Noelle, {David C.} and Rick Dale and Anne Warlaumont and Jeff Yoshimi and Teenie Matlock and Jennings, {Carolyn D.} and Maglio, {Paul P.}",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2015",

}

Hu, J, Whalen, A, Buchsbaum, D, Griffiths, T & Xu, F 2015, Can Children Balance the Size of a Majority with the Quality of their Information? in DC Noelle, R Dale, A Warlaumont, J Yoshimi, T Matlock, CD Jennings & PP Maglio (eds), Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2015. Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2015, The Cognitive Science Society, pp. 956-961, 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Mind, Technology, and Society, CogSci 2015, Pasadena, United States, 7/23/15.

Can Children Balance the Size of a Majority with the Quality of their Information? / Hu, Jane; Whalen, Andrew; Buchsbaum, Daphna et al.
Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2015. ed. / David C. Noelle; Rick Dale; Anne Warlaumont; Jeff Yoshimi; Teenie Matlock; Carolyn D. Jennings; Paul P. Maglio. The Cognitive Science Society, 2015. p. 956-961 (Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2015).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution