Children's use of information quality to establish speaker preferences

Knowledge transfer is most effective when speakers provide good quality (in addition to accurate) information. Two studies investigated whether preschool- (4-5 years old) and school-age (6-7 years old) children prefer speakers who provide sufficient information over those who provide insufficient (yet accurate) information. Children were provided clues to the location of hidden dots by speakers who varied in quality and accuracy. Subsequently, children decided from whom they would like to receive additional information. In Study 1, when the outcome of the clue was clear, preschool- (n = 40) and school-age (n = 42) children chose to solicit information from sufficient rather than from insufficient speakers. In Study 2, when not provided with information about the outcome of the speakers' clues, school-age (n = 22), but not preschool-age (n = 19), children preferred sufficient relative to insufficient speakers. Results highlight a developmental progression in children's use of information quality as a cue to determining that individuals are preferable informants.