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Experimental Research Examining How People Can Cope with Uncertainty Through Soft Haptic Sensations

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Testimony bias lingers across development under uncertainty.

Rista C Plate¹, Kristin Shutts², Aaron Cochrane³

¹Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania.

Developmental Psychology

|December 20, 2021

Summary

Children aged 4-9 show a bias to trust testimony, especially when uncertain. This testimony bias decreases with age but persists even with advanced reasoning skills.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Development
Social Learning Theory
Child Psychology

Background:

Children possess strong probabilistic reasoning skills.
However, young learners sometimes follow testimony over rewards, a phenomenon known as testimony bias.
This bias is typically studied in preschoolers, with less focus on older children or lingering effects under uncertainty.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate testimony bias in children aged 4 to 9 years.
To determine if testimony bias persists beyond preschool age, particularly under conditions of uncertainty.
To examine the influence of testimony reliability and source on children's decision-making.

Main Methods:

Children (4-9 years old) participated in reward-seeking tasks with varying testimony reliability.
Experiment 1 assessed sensitivity to trial-by-trial uncertainty.
Experiment 2 differentiated between human and computer-generated testimony.
Experiment 3 examined responses to unexpected changes in testimony reliability.

Main Results:

Evidence supports the existence of testimony bias in children older than preschool age.
Children exhibited a stronger bias when testimony was uncertain.
The impact of testimony bias diminished with increasing age.
The bias was specific to human testimony, not computer errors.

Conclusions:

Testimony bias influences children's choices even when they possess advanced reasoning skills.
Uncertainty exacerbates the reliance on testimony.
Understanding testimony bias is crucial for comprehending social learning and decision-making in developing children.