Domains and naïve theories

Human cognition entails domain‐specific cognitive processes that influence memory, attention, categorization, problem‐solving, reasoning, and knowledge organization. This article examines domain‐specific causal theories, which are of particular interest for permitting an examination of how knowledge structures change over time. We first describe the properties of commonsense theories, and how commonsense theories differ from scientific theories, illustrating with children's classification of biological and nonbiological kinds. We next consider the implications of domain‐specificity for broader issues regarding cognitive development and conceptual change. We then examine the extent to which domain‐specific theories interact, and how people reconcile competing causal frameworks. Future directions for research include examining how different content domains interact, the nature of theory change, the role of context (including culture, language, and social interaction) in inducing different frameworks, and the neural bases for domain‐specific reasoning. WIREs Cogni Sci 2011 2 490–502 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.124 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs websitePeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87128/1/124_ftp.pd

Choosing Sides: Children’s Expectations of Consequences of Loyalty Towards Authority

Previous research has found that children recognize social group membership and status early in development (Aboud, 2003; Gulgoz & Gelman, 2017). However, children increasingly value loyalty towards authority figures with age, although they prefer members of their own social groups (Norris & Noles, 2022). In this study, we are interested in whether children expect there to be positive consequences associated with loyalty towards authority figures over a subordinate, as well as negative consequences associated with loyalty towards subordinates over authority figures. We presented children ages 6-8, as well as adults, with a situation in which a worker was loyal to either the boss (authority figure) or another worker (subordinate). We then asked two questions: whether the boss was nice to the (dis)loyal worker (Positive Consequence) or mean to them (Negative Consequence). Both children and adults significantly chose the worker to receive a negative consequence when the worker was loyal to the subordinate as well as to receive a positive consequence when the worker was loyal to the boss. These results suggest that at a young age, children recognize that risks are associated with loyalty towards authority figures over in-group members. Future studies should further explore how loyalty influences the way children interact in relationships with friends, parents, and teachers

How Children Seek Out Information from Technological and Human Informants

Abstract Members of the current generation of young children have been exposed to technological informants, primarily consisting of devices that search the Internet for information, nearly since birth. However, little is known about how young children explore information using these digital sources. To address this issue, 30 preschool children generated questions about unfamiliar animals that were to be answered by either a human or technological informant (i.e., an Internet search program). Children also completed a measure of biological and psychological attributions to different types of information sources. Overall, children generated similar numbers of questions for each informant, and a similar proportion of their questions were causal in nature. Children also attributed few biological and psychological characteristics to the Internet search program. This suggests that, despite understanding that technological devices share few biological and psychological properties with people, young children seek out information in similar ways from human and technological information sources

Children Seek Historical Traces of Owned Objects

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141553/1/cdev12453.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141553/2/cdev12453_am.pd

The role of age, theory of mind, and linguistic ability in children's understanding of ownership.

The current study replicates and expands prior work on children's ownership intuitions and explores whether variability in theory of mind and linguistic ability predicts patterns in children's understanding of ownership. We tested children ages 4 to 6 and found age-related differences in ownership intuitions, but those differences were not significantly predicted by variability in theory of mind or linguistic ability. This report is the first to specifically investigate the cognitive competencies that contribute to the development of mature ownership concepts, and to replicate many of the core findings in the literature

You can’t always want what you get: Children's intuitions about ownership and desire

Cognitive Development, No. 31, pp. 59–68Ownership is a central element of human experience. The present experiments were designed to examine the influence of psychological state on ownership judgments. In three experiments, 4-year-olds were asked to make ownership attributions about owners and non-owners who either desired or did not desire a gift. Despite exhibiting a clear sensitivity to the desires of others, children made accurate ownership attributions independent of individuals’ desires. At the same time, there are subtle influences of desires on children's ownership judgments, as well as subtle influences of ownership on children's desire judgments. Thus, the two factors are largely but not wholly distinct in young children's thinking

Exploring the first possessor bias in children.

Even very young children are adept at linking property to owners (Gelman, Manczak, & Noles, 2012). However, some studies report that children systematically conserve property with the first possessors (Blake & Harris, 2009; Friedman & Neary, 2008). The present study seeks to integrate these two findings by testing for the presence of a first possessor bias in older children (ages 7-10) using a broader array of property transfers, and by investigating how manipulations of context-from third-person to first-person-yield ownership attributions that are more or less biased. Seven- and 8-year-olds, but not older children, exhibited a first possessor bias when property transfers were presented in a third-person context. This finding suggests that the first possessor bias persists longer in childhood than previously suspected. However, the bias was greatly attenuated or absent when property transfers were presented in a first-person context, rather than a third-person context