ABSTRACT

Our ability to shift from current to alternative (e.g., past and future) perspectives (i.e., “self-projection”) plays a fundamental role in accurate decision-making. We investigated 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds’ ability to shift perspective to reason about their future and past preferences. In Experiment 1 (N = 96), children were presented with pairs of adult- and child-preferable items and asked to select what they preferred “now” and in the future, whereas in Experiment 2 (N = 96), children were presented with pairs of baby- and child-preferable items and asked to select what they preferred “now” and in the past. Children were also asked to rate how much they liked each item using a novel continuous measure of preferences (i.e., faces scale). In Experiment 1, 3-year-olds performed significantly below chance, whereas 4- and 5-year-olds were at chance in selecting the appropriate adult-preferable items for their future self. Four- a.007; 4-year-olds, p < .001nd 5-year-olds, but not 3-year-olds, demonstrated some understanding of changes in their future preferences by reporting that they will like child-preferable items less and adult-preferable items more in the future than they do now. In Experiment 2, 3- and 4-year-olds were at chance in selecting the appropriate baby-preferable items for their past self, whereas 5-year-olds were significantly above chance. Corresponding preference ratings significantly improved with age. Exploratory cross-experiment analyses revealed that children were more accurate when reasoning about past than future preferences. Our results provide new insights on children’s reasoning about preferences and possible differences in their ability to self-project into the future and past.

摘要

我们从当前观点转变为替代观点（例如，过去和将来）（即“自我预测”）的能力在准确的决策中起着根本性的作用。我们调查了3岁，4岁和5岁儿童将视角转变为对他们的未来和过去偏好的推理的能力。在实验1（N = 96）中，向儿童展示了成对的成人和儿童偏好的物品，并要求他们选择“现在”和将来的偏好，而在实验2中（N= 96），向儿童展示了一对婴儿和儿童偏爱的物品，并要求他们选择“现在”和过去喜欢的物品。还要求孩子们使用一种新颖的，连续的偏好测量方法（即面部表情）来评价他们对每个物品的喜欢程度。在实验1中，三岁以下儿童的表现明显低于偶然性，而四岁和五岁青少年则有机会为自己的未来选择合适的成年人偏爱的物品。四-a.007；4岁儿童（p <.001岁的5岁儿童，而不是3岁儿童）通过报告他们对儿童偏爱的物品越来越少，对成人偏爱的物品越来越喜欢，表明了他们对未来偏好变化的一些理解。未来比现在更重要。在实验2中，三岁和四岁的孩子有机会为其过往的自我选择合适的婴儿偏爱的物品，而5岁儿童则明显高于机会。相应的偏好等级随着年龄的增长而显着提高。探索性的交叉实验分析表明，孩子对过去的推理比对未来的偏好更为准确。我们的研究结果提供了关于儿童偏好偏好的推理的新见解，以及他们对未来和过去自我投射能力的可能差异。