In this study, the authors assessed children's ability to use information overheard in other people's conversations to judge the reality status of a novel entity. Three- to 9-year-old children (N = 101) watched video clips in which two adults conversed casually about a novel being. Videos contained statements that explicitly denied, explicitly affirmed, or implicitly acknowledged the entity's existence. Results indicated that children of all ages used statements of denial to discount the reality status of the novel entity, but that this ability improved with age. By age 5, children used implicit existence cues to judge a novel entity as being real. Not until age 9, however, did children begin to doubt the existence of entities whose reality status was explicitly affirmed in conversation. Overall, results indicate that the ability to use conversational cues to determine reality status is present in some children as early as age 3, but recognition of the nuanced language of belief continues to develop during the elementary-school years.

中文翻译：

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使用会话线索评估现实状况的发展

在这项研究中，作者评估了儿童使用从他人谈话中偷听到的信息来判断一个新实体的现实状态的能力。3 到 9 岁的儿童（N = 101）观看视频片段，其中两个成年人随意地谈论一个小说。视频包含明确否认、明确肯定或暗示承认该实体存在的声明。结果表明，所有年龄段的儿童都使用否认声明来贬低新实体的现实状态，但这种能力随着年龄的增长而提高。到 5 岁时，儿童使用隐含的存在线索来判断一个新实体是否真实。然而，直到 9 岁，孩子们才开始怀疑现实状态在谈话中被明确确认的实体的存在。总体，