ABSTRACT

The present study was the first to investigate the ability to selectively trust reliable informants in a sample of Brazilian preschool children from two different socioeconomic backgrounds. Ninety-three 3- and 4-year-old children, equally distributed across a low- and medium-SES group, participated. A standard selective trust task was used. Participants also completed the Scale of Theory-of Mind Tasks and a vocabulary test (PPVT). Children from the mid-SES group showed higher vocabulary and theory-of-mind scores, but surprisingly, their performance in the selective trust task was significantly worse than the low-SES group. No age effect was found, but results suggest a significant main effect of condition, with participants performing better when an accurate informant was pitted against a neutral informant in comparison to when an inaccurate informant was pitted against a neutral informant. This pattern of results contrasts with previous evidence with 3-year-old children in the U.S., who showed more selective performance in the presence of inaccurate informants. These findings are the first to demonstrate the influence of family SES on selective learning in childhood and point to promising lines of investigation on how mechanisms of selective trust may vary across socioeconomic contexts.

摘要

本研究首次调查了在来自两个不同社会经济背景的巴西学龄前儿童样本中选择性信任可靠的线人的能力。共有93个3岁和4岁的儿童平均分布在中低等SES组中。使用了标准的选择性信任任务。参加者还完成了“理论任务量表”和一项词汇测试（PPVT）。SES中期组的孩子在词汇和理智上得分更高，但令人惊讶的是，他们在选择性信任任务中的表现明显低于低SES组。未发现年龄影响，但结果表明病情有明显的主要影响，与不准确的举报人与中立的举报人相比，参与者在将准确的举报人与中立的举报人进行对抗时表现更好。这种结果模式与美国3岁儿童的先前证据形成鲜明对比，美国3岁儿童在举报人不准确的情况下表现出更多的选择性表现。这些发现是第一个证明家庭SES对儿童选择性学习的影响，并指出了关于选择性信任机制在社会经济环境中如何变化的有前途的研究路线。