The Privileged Status of Knowing Mechanistic Information: An Early Epistemic Bias.

Lockhart, Kristi L.; Chuey, Aaron; Kerr, Sophie; Keil, Frank C.

Four studies with 180 5-7 year olds, 165 8-11 year olds and 199 adults show that young children appreciate the distinctive role played by mechanistic explanations in tracking causal patterns. Young children attributed greater knowledge to individuals offering mechanistic reasons for a claim than others who provide equally detailed nonmechanistic reasons. In Study 1, 5-7 year olds attributed greater knowledge to those offering mechanistic reasons. In Studies 2 and 3, all ages (5-7 and adults for Study 2; 5-7, 8-11 and adults for Study 3) assigned greater knowledge to those offering mechanistic reasons about causally central features than those offering nonmechanistic reasons. In Study 4, all ages (5-7, 8-11, adults) modulated the epistemic bias as a function of embedding goals.

MECHANISM (Philosophy); CHILDREN; QUESTIONING; ANALYSIS of variance; EFFECT sizes (Statistics); ATTITUDE (Psychology); COMPARATIVE studies; INTELLECT; RESEARCH methodology; MEDICAL cooperation; SENSORY perception; RESEARCH; THOUGHT & thinking; EVALUATION research

Child Development, 2019, Vol 90, Issue 5, p1772

0009-3920

Academic Journal

10.1111/cdev.13246