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Exploring the effect of experience on the development of evidential reasoning

  • THE KOREAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
  • 2017, 30(1), pp.159-176
  • Publisher : The Korean Society For Developmental Psychology
  • Research Area : Social Science > Psychological Science

유성재 1 Youngon Choi 2

1중앙대학교 심리학과
2중앙대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The source of information conveyed by a speaker is marked with evidential morphemes: whether it was obtained from direct experience, indirect inference, or indirect hearsay. Evidential reasoning refers to abilities to infer the information source and its relative certainty using these evidential markers. It has been reported that evidential reasoning begins to mature after the age of six but this reasoning ability can appear earlier or later depending on the input frequency of evidentials used in each language. The present study aimed to explore the possibility that the effect of input frequency actually originates from the evidential experience related to each marker. To test this idea, a hide-and-seek play story was created in which information linked with direct experience was always correct whereas information associated with indirect inference or hearsay was correct only 50% of the time. Four and 5-year-olds were told this story four times and their evidential reasoning abilities were compared with those who were read a story that was unrelated to evidential experience. Four-year-olds who read the story with the experimenter, showed signs of improvement in their reasoning, but this effect was not observed among 5-year-olds who were shown the story via a video presentation. The role of the type and amount of evidential experience and other cognitive factors underlying development of evidential reasoning abilities were discussed.

Citation status

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