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Children choose to reason with partners who submit to reason

Publication ,  Journal Article
Domberg, A; Köymen, B; Tomasello, M
Published in: Cognitive Development
October 1, 2019

When reasoning with others, the reasons used in an exchange can have varying degrees of quality, irrespective of the facts under discussion. Partners often evaluate one another's evaluation of reasons – one another's reasoning. Can children evaluate their partner's judgment of the quality of reasons independent of objective truth? 5- and 7-year-olds (N = 122) chose among two partners for cooperation. In the experimental condition, one acceded to a good reason, the other to a poor reason. In the control condition, each agreed to a different good reason. Crucially, in both conditions, both partners arrived at the wrong conclusion. Results suggested that 7-year-olds, and 5-year-olds to a lesser degree, chose the partner who endorsed the good reason in the experimental condition, but showed no preference for partners in the control condition. Thus, young children distinguish good from poor reasons, even if neither leads to success, and choose partners who do the same.

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Published In

Cognitive Development

DOI

ISSN

0885-2014

Publication Date

October 1, 2019

Volume

52

Related Subject Headings

  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • 5205 Social and personality psychology
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
  • 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
  • 1702 Cognitive Sciences
  • 1701 Psychology
  • 0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
 

Citation

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Domberg, A., Köymen, B., & Tomasello, M. (2019). Children choose to reason with partners who submit to reason. Cognitive Development, 52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.100824
Domberg, A., B. Köymen, and M. Tomasello. “Children choose to reason with partners who submit to reason.” Cognitive Development 52 (October 1, 2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.100824.
Domberg A, Köymen B, Tomasello M. Children choose to reason with partners who submit to reason. Cognitive Development. 2019 Oct 1;52.
Domberg, A., et al. “Children choose to reason with partners who submit to reason.” Cognitive Development, vol. 52, Oct. 2019. Scopus, doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.100824.
Domberg A, Köymen B, Tomasello M. Children choose to reason with partners who submit to reason. Cognitive Development. 2019 Oct 1;52.
Journal cover image

Published In

Cognitive Development

DOI

ISSN

0885-2014

Publication Date

October 1, 2019

Volume

52

Related Subject Headings

  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • 5205 Social and personality psychology
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
  • 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
  • 1702 Cognitive Sciences
  • 1701 Psychology
  • 0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing