ERIC Number: EJ774356
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2007-Sep
Pages: 13
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
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Available Date: N/A
Children's Differentiation between Beliefs about Matters of Fact and Matters of Opinion
Banerjee, Robin; Yuill, Nicola; Larson, Christina; Easton, Kate; Robinson, Elizabeth; Rowley, Martin
Developmental Psychology, v43 n5 p1084-1096 Sep 2007
Two experiments investigated children's implicit and explicit differentiation between beliefs about matters of fact and matters of opinion. In Experiment 1, 8- to 9-year-olds' (n = 88) explicit understanding of the subjectivity of opinions was found to be limited, but their conformity to others' judgments on a matter of opinion was considerably lower than their conformity to others' views regarding an ambiguous fact. In Experiment 2, children aged 6, 8, or 10 years (n = 81) were asked to make judgments either about ambiguous matters of fact or about matters of opinion and then heard an opposing judgment from an expert. All age groups conformed to the opposing judgments on factual matters more than they did to the experts' views on matters of opinion. However, only the oldest children explicitly recognized that opinions are subjective and cannot be "wrong." Implications of these results for models of children's reasoning about epistemic states are discussed.
Descriptors: Social Behavior, Opinions, Anthropology, Adolescents, Child Development, Beliefs, Children, Epistemology, Experiments, Models, Individual Psychology, Developmental Psychology
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
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