Children's sensitivity to their own relative ignorance: handling of possibilities under epistemic and physical uncertainty

Child Dev. 2006 Nov-Dec;77(6):1642-55. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00964.x.

Abstract

Children more frequently specified possibilities correctly when uncertainty resided in the physical world (physical uncertainty) than in their own perspective of ignorance (epistemic uncertainty). In Experiment 1 (N=61), 4- to 6-year-olds marked both doors from which a block might emerge when the outcome was undetermined, but a single door when they knew the block was hidden behind one door. In Experiments 2 (N=30; 5- to 6-year-olds) and 3 (N=80; 5- to 8-year-olds), children placed food in both possible locations when an imaginary pet was yet to occupy one, but in a single location when the pet was already hidden in one. The results have implications for interpretive theory of mind and "curse of knowledge."

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Attitude*
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Cognition*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Knowledge
  • Male
  • Psychological Theory