Verbal Information Hinders Young Children's Ability to Gain Modality Specific Knowledge
Publication date
2015-10-02Keyword
AspectualityVerbal descriptions
Perceptual experience
Sources of knowledge
Episodic memory
Autonoetic consciousness
Access
Event
Mind
Peer-Reviewed
Yes
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
In two experiments, we investigated whether having prior experience of objects influenced young children's ability to solve a metacognitive search task, based on the objects' perceptual properties. In Experiment 1, 100 children (mean age 77months) chose whether to look or feel to locate one of two hidden balls (identifiable by sight or touch). Before choosing, children were told about the balls' perceptual properties (i.e. their colour and feel'), and/or saw and touched them, or had no pre-trial experience of them at all. Children who only had self-directed contact with the balls performed best, but children who heard the objects described by an adult performed relatively poorly. In Experiment 2, 116 children (mean age 72months) either heard only relevant, relevant and irrelevant, or no information about the objects before completing the task. Verbal descriptions of the balls (whether or not they contained irrelevant information) caused children difficulties.Version
No full-text in the repositoryCitation
Waters GM and Beck SR (2015) Verbal Information Hinders Young Children's Ability to Gain Modality Specific Knowledge. Infant and Child Development. 24(5): 538-548.Link to Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.1901Type
Articleae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.1901