Smart or Just Lucky? Inferring Question-Asking Competence From Strategies' Efficiency Versus Effectiveness.
Previous research shows that children evaluate the competence of others based on how effectively someone accomplished a goal, that is, based on the observed outcome of an action (e.g., number of attempts needed). Here, we investigate whether 5- to 10-year-old children and adults infer competence fro...
| Publicado en: | Developmental Psychology Vol. 59; no. 6; pp. 1136 - 1153 |
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| Autores principales: | , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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American Psychological Association
Jun2023
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=163802435&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 163802435 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00121649 DPS jtl: Developmental Psychology issn: 00121649 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2023 vid: 59 iid: 6 pid: 34 pub: American Psychological Association artinfo: ui: 163802435 10.1037/dev0001516 ppf: 1136 ppct: 17 formats: tig: atl: Smart or Just Lucky? Inferring Question-Asking Competence From Strategies' Efficiency Versus Effectiveness. aug: au: Török, Georgina Swaboda, Nora Ruggeri, Azzurra affil: MPRG iSearch, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany TUM School of Education, Technical University of Munich Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University su: Germany Judgment (Psychology) Communicative competence Task performance Communication Confidence intervals Descriptive statistics Data analysis software Odds ratio sug: subj: Judgment (Psychology) Communicative competence Task performance Communication Germany Confidence intervals Descriptive statistics Data analysis software Odds ratio keyword: ability cognitive development competence social cognition ability cognitive development competence social cognition ab: Previous research shows that children evaluate the competence of others based on how effectively someone accomplished a goal, that is, based on the observed outcome of an action (e.g., number of attempts needed). Here, we investigate whether 5- to 10-year-old children and adults infer competence from how efficiently someone solves a task by implementing question-asking strategies of varying expected information gains (EIG). Whereas the efficiency of a strategy defined as EIG is a reliable indicator of competence, the observed effectiveness of actions may depend on unrelated external factors, such as luck. Across two experiments conducted in Germany, we varied how efficiently and how effectively different agents solved a 20-questions game (Experiments 1 and 2) and a maze-exploration game (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1 (N = 121), only adults identified a more efficient agent as more competent, and all participants attributed higher competence to agents needing fewer questions even when they employed the same inefficient strategy. In Experiment 2 (N = 220), adults and children from about 8 years onward successfully identified the agents using the more efficient strategy as more competent. Overall, our results suggest that observed effectiveness is a powerful cue for competence even when such an inference may not be warranted and that the ability to make explicit competence judgments based on the efficiency of a strategy alone emerges around 8 years of age, although, as shown in previous work, a more implicit understanding of competence may already be present during the preschool years. Public Significance Statement: This study investigated the cues young children and adults use to evaluate the competence of someone they observed solving a problem. Children struggle to evaluate competence based on the efficiency of the strategy used until around age 8. Instead, the observed number of steps taken to reach a solution remains a powerful cue for competence throughout childhood and even adulthood. Children's accuracy in making inferences about other people's competence is relevant for their skill growth, socio-cognitive development, and academic achievement. Therefore, exploring and promoting an unbiased understanding of competence, stressing the importance of strategy efficiency, can support children's development in classroom settings and beyond. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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