Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Taking account of others’ goals in social information use: Developmental changes in 3- to 7-year-old children

Blakey, Kirsten H.; Atkinson, Mark; Rafetseder, Eva; Renner, Elizabeth; Caldwell, Christine A.

Taking account of others’ goals in social information use: Developmental changes in 3- to 7-year-old children Thumbnail


Authors

Kirsten H. Blakey

Mark Atkinson

Eva Rafetseder

Elizabeth Renner

Christine A. Caldwell



Abstract

The ability to take mental states such as goals into account when interpreting others’ behavior has been proposed to be what sets human use of social information apart from that of other animals. If so, children’s social information use would be expected to change as their understanding of others’ mental states develops. We explored age-related changes in 3- to 7-year-old children’s ability to strategically use social information by taking into account another’s goal when it was, or was not, aligned with their own. Children observed as a puppet demonstrator selected a capsule, peeked inside, and chose to accept or reject it, following which children made their own selection. Children were able to account for others’ conflicting motivations from around 4 years of age and reliably inferred the outcome of others’ behavior from 6 years. However, using social information based on such inferences appeared to be challenging regardless of whether the demonstrator’s goal was, or was not. aligned to that of the participant. We found that social information use improved with age; however, this improvement was restricted to cases in which the appropriate response was to avoid copying the demonstrator’s selection. In contrast to previous research, appropriate copying responses remained at chance. Possible explanations for this unexpected pattern of results are discussed. The cognitive challenge associated with the ability to account for others’ goals could offer humans a significant advantage over that of other animals in their ability to use social information.

Citation

Blakey, K. H., Atkinson, M., Rafetseder, E., Renner, E., & Caldwell, C. A. (2022). Taking account of others’ goals in social information use: Developmental changes in 3- to 7-year-old children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 215, Article 105325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105325

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 8, 2021
Online Publication Date Dec 9, 2021
Publication Date 2022-03
Deposit Date Jun 29, 2022
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
Print ISSN 0022-0965
Electronic ISSN 1096-0457
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 215
Article Number 105325
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105325

Files




You might also like



Downloadable Citations