The Society for Research in Children Development suggests that children as they age are more likely to become more skeptical of what adults tell them. They will more likely investigate through observational testing any puzzling claims adults may make.
Children will often learn on their own from their immediate environment through experimentation and curious observation.
Children also learn from what others like parents and those with authority tell them. But, when they learn something that is surprising, they seek out other methods of gaining information. Usually through asking more questions and/or testing a claim.
For instance, we know that a 6 year old will be more likely to test a new surprising claim than a 4 or 5 year old. But the reason why there is a shift in their belief is not shown in the research.
A study published in Child Development, done at University of Toronto and Harvard University took an attempt to answer the question.
Samantha Cottrell, senior lab member from the Childhood Learning and Development Lab (ChiLD) at University of Toronto said, “The research shows that as children age, they become more skeptical of what adults tell them. This explains why older children are more likely to verify claims and are more intentional about their exploration of objects.”
In one 2019 study, 109 children aged 4-6 years old from the Greater Toronto, Canada area were involved. 108 of the 109 parents were asked of their child’s ethnicity, with 49% white, 21% mixed and 19% Southeastern Asian.
The parents had an educational background of 18% of not attending university, 34% of one parent attending university and 48% of both parents attending university.
The children were presented with three familiar objects: a rock, a hacky sack and a soft sponge-like material. Then the experimenter said. “Do you think this rock is hard or soft?” The children all answered, hard. Then, later they were randomly told that it was in fact soft and not hard.
Then, they were asked again, “Do you think this rock is hard or soft?” Almost all the children held on to the original belief they aligned while a few of the children continuing to make the same prior judgement after being told the rock was soft.
The experimenters then told the children they had to leave the room to make a phone call. The behavior of the children was then video-taped to allow them to further explore the object in question.
The researchers observed regardless of age that every child tested out for them self the unbelievable claim.
The researchers hypothesized that the exploration ability of the children were reflected in the child’s age as a way to test out for themselves more surprising and confusing claims.
They also thought the motivational reasons behind the children’s exploration could be in question. The younger ones could be rooted more in seeing if what they were told was in fact, true. While the older children explored the false claim because they were skeptical.
In another study done in September through December of 2020, they recruited 154 children ages 4-7 years of age, from the same area as the first study. The children reported their ethnicity as 50% white, 20% mixed race, and 17% Southeastern Asian. The parents educational background was 20% not having attended university, 35% with one parent attending and 45% having both parents attending.
This time the experiment was conducted over Zoom, because of the lockdown. Each participating child was given eight different scenarios. The children were then told that the adult made a surprising claim, much like in the last example of “ the rock is hard” etc. Then they were asked what another child should do in response to the claim and why they should do it.
The results of this experiment all showed that it was the older children (6-7 yr old’s), who suggested taking on the explorational tactic of seeing for themselves. Results also revealed that the children felt more justified in using this approach to verify any particular claim.
It is quite natural to see as children age they are more likely to broaden their world and in doing so, their methods of inquiry. Which include exploration of surprising and doubtful claims, but, in a more intentional and directed way. As though they are testing the newly developing brain region dealing with logic. That is being formed as they discover their immediate and ever expanding world that surrounds them.
Samuel Ronfard, assistant professor at the University of Toronto and lab director at (ChiLD) Lab said, “There is still a lot we don’t know”. But, what’s clear is that children don’t believe everything they are told. They think about what they’ve been told and if they’re skeptical, they seek out additional information that could confirm or disconfirm it.”
-A Balanced Brain is a Better Brain for a Happier Life-