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The Modified Temptation Resistance Task: A Paradigm to Elicit Children's Strategic Lie-telling

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Published on: April 6, 2018

Conceptual continuity in the development of intent-based moral judgment.

Francesco Margoni¹, Luca Surian¹

¹Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto 38068, Italy.

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

|February 25, 2020

Summary

Preschoolers

Keywords:

Conceptual change Conceptual continuity Executive function Intention Moral judgment Processing demands

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Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Moral Psychology
Cognitive Development

Background:

Preschoolers' moral judgments shift from outcome-based to intention-based reasoning with age.
Existing theories debate whether this shift represents a conceptual change or gradual development.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the developmental trajectory of intention-based moral judgments in preschoolers (3-5 years).
To examine the role of task demands in facilitating intent-based reasoning.

Main Methods:

A novel response generation training task was employed to assess moral judgments.
Two experiments were conducted with children aged 3 to 5 years.

Main Results:

Simplified tasks enabled 3-year-olds to make intent-based moral judgments.
Older preschoolers (4-5 years) made intent-based judgments even without task simplification.

Conclusions:

Findings suggest conceptual continuity in moral development rather than a sharp 4-year-old conceptual change.
Task demands significantly influence preschoolers' ability to express intention-based moral reasoning.