The role of trait inference and pragmatic inference in young children's selective learning

Despite the early development of children's sensitivity to the informativeness of testimony, there is limited understanding of their interpretation of others' history of informativeness. This study investigates how preschoolers make trait inferences and pragmatic inferences about informants who differed in informativeness, and how these abilities affect their selective learning. Four- and 5-year-olds (N = 64) observed two informants with differential access to a series of conjunctive causal events (full vs. partial). They were then asked to make pragmatic and trait inferences about the informants before choosing one informant to learn from. Five-year-olds, but not 4-year-olds, preferred to learn from the informative speaker. This pattern of selective learning held only for children who evaluated the informative speaker as smarter and for those children who could infer the informants' epistemic states from the strength of statements. These findings highlight the crucial role of trait reasoning and pragmatic ability in guiding children's selective learning.