ERIC Number: EJ938519
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Dec
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-0965
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Imagining What Might Be: Why Children Underestimate Uncertainty
Beck, Sarah R.; McColgan, Kerry L. T.; Robinson, Elizabeth J.; Rowley, Martin G.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, v110 n4 p603-610 Dec 2011
Children's well-documented tendency to behave as if they know more than they do about uncertain events is reduced under two conditions: when the outcome of a chance event has yet to be determined and when one unknown outcome has occurred but is difficult to imagine. In Experiment 1, in line with published findings, 5- and 6-year-olds (N=61) preferred to guess the unknown location of a known object when the object was in place rather than before its location had been determined. There was no such preference when the object's identity was unknown. In Experiment 2, 29 5- and 6-year-olds were more likely to correctly mark both possible locations when an already hidden object's identity was unknown rather than known. We conclude that children's vivid imaginations can lead them to underestimate uncertainty in a similar way to imagination inflation or fluency effects in adults. (Contains 2 tables.)
Descriptors: Object Permanence, Experimental Psychology, Student Behavior, Identification, Young Children, Comparative Analysis, Adults, Elementary Education
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
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Author Affiliations: N/A