TY - JOUR
T1 - Preschoolers' understanding of graded preferences
AU - Hu, Jane
AU - Lucas, Christopher G.
AU - Griffiths, Thomas L.
AU - Xu, Fei
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to J.H. We would also like to thank all participants and their parents for supporting our research, and the members of the Berkeley Early Learning Lab for their helpful suggestions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015.
PY - 2015/10/1
Y1 - 2015/10/1
N2 - To navigate the social world, children must learn about others' preferences. Though people can use emotional and verbal cues to express their preferences, these cues are often unavailable or unreliable. Previous research has found that preschoolers and toddlers use statistical information to infer the existence of a preference. However, in the real world, preferences are not binary; they can also be graded. In two experiments, we find that preschoolers use statistical information about an agent's choices to infer the graded strengths of preferences. From observing an agent's choices, preschoolers inferred that objects the agent chose less consistently were less preferred than objects the agent chose more consistently. Additionally, preschoolers' responses indicated that preschoolers make more sophisticated transitive inferences than previously attributed to this age group.
AB - To navigate the social world, children must learn about others' preferences. Though people can use emotional and verbal cues to express their preferences, these cues are often unavailable or unreliable. Previous research has found that preschoolers and toddlers use statistical information to infer the existence of a preference. However, in the real world, preferences are not binary; they can also be graded. In two experiments, we find that preschoolers use statistical information about an agent's choices to infer the graded strengths of preferences. From observing an agent's choices, preschoolers inferred that objects the agent chose less consistently were less preferred than objects the agent chose more consistently. Additionally, preschoolers' responses indicated that preschoolers make more sophisticated transitive inferences than previously attributed to this age group.
KW - Cognitive development
KW - Preferences
KW - Social cognition
KW - Statistical inference
KW - Transitive inference
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U2 - 10.1016/j.cogdev.2015.09.012
DO - 10.1016/j.cogdev.2015.09.012
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84943804052
SN - 0885-2014
VL - 36
SP - 93
EP - 102
JO - Cognitive Development
JF - Cognitive Development
ER -