1. Introduction and purpose of the study
This paper shows whether children and adults use the same strategy to confirm if an individual is a reliable source of information or not. It also illustrates on whether children and adults use the information related to accuracy, confidence and calibration to judge in formants integrity. In the event of the study, it tends to show that adults discredited informants who exhibited poor calibration whereas children did not (Tenney, Small, Kondrad, Jaswal & Spellman, 2011). Thus, adults and children differ on how they infer credibility; this is due to cognitive requirements of practicing calibration.
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a. Rationale
The study was conducted in order to show that individuals depend on others to study much of what they are perceived to be aware of. Basically, this purports that for one to ensure the truth of what he or she believes concerning the world, individuals tend to seek out reliable and credible informants (Tenney, Small, Kondrad, Jaswal & Spellman, 2011). In addition, the reading illustrates that their perception on relying on an informant’s information changes as they change from childhood to adulthood.
b. Hypothesis
The author showed in the study that children are sensitive to calibration information. This was basically as a result of children being unable to comprehend the relevant pieces of information. This was due to children being reluctant to change their answer hence it does not elaborate the difference between children and adults discrepant choice of informants (Tenney, Small, Kondrad, Jaswal & Spellman, 2011). In addition, it was assumed that because of disparities in cognitive abilities, children and adults differ in the information they use to make interferences concerning the credibility of informants.
2. Method
The methods that were used are; children and adult use of calibration, children use of calibration in an objective-naming task, children use of confidence, children use of accuracy and cognitive load and adults use of calibration (Tenney, Small, Kondrad, Jaswal & Spellman, 2011). These were the methods that were meant to elaborate on how young children and adults assess reliability.
a. Participants and how they were selected
The participants who were associated in the proposal were adults and children; this was so as it was meant to show how young children and adults assess credibility. There were 19 year and 10 month male adults and female counterparts ranged from 18-22 years old. Children were five year males and 6 year 11 month girls (Tenney, Small, Kondrad, Jaswal & Spellman, 2011). In addition, they were selected from a database of community families and were from predominantly Caucasian middle class backgrounds.
b. Research methods
Adults were tested individually in a laboratory and sat at the table next to an experimenter. Here the experimenter read a story book to them individually and at times pointed at characteristics of pictures while speaking to them. She even changed her voice at times in order to emphasize on what the informant said (Tenney, Small, Kondrad, Jaswal & Spellman, 2011). Similarly, children underwent the same experiment as adults as they were all being related on how they assess credibility.
3. Results and discussion
Concerning the experiment on calibration information, it was found that children preferred the overly confident informants whereas adults preferred a cautious informant (Tenney, Small, Kondrad, Jaswal & Spellman, 2011). This indicates that children and adults differ in the information they use to make interferences concerning the credibility of informants.
a. Findings of the study
It was found that children do not make use of calibration information because it requires them to integrate confidence and accuracy information. Coincidentally, it was found that children have difficulties in doing so and it showed that they tend to rely on independent features that come from lifespan literature on feature binding memory (Tenney, Small, Kondrad, Jaswal & Spellman, 2011). Moreover, it showed that children and older adults have more complexity feature of binding as compared to young adults.
This entails that the ability to bind information together is a difficult part of the developmental practice that seems to improve during childhood and decrease during older adulthood. In addition, the study illustrated that adults were sensitive to information that related to calibration. This was as a result of being influenced by whether informants were good judges of their own facts and conveyed the correct amount of assurance (Tenney, Small, Kondrad, Jaswal & Spellman, 2011). On the other hand, children tended to trust whichever informant was the most confident even when their confidence was overstated.
b. Implications of the study
The study shows that individuals are better able to evaluate input and advice. It is so as adults recognize the value in well calibrated informants. A statement made with confidence invites an expectation of accuracy and a violation of the expectation casts doubt on other statements by the same informant. Whereas children perceive that high confidence error does not contribute the same repercussions for informant’s credibility (Tenney, Small, Kondrad, Jaswal & Spellman, 2011). Hence, more information ought to be learned on ho calibration and judgments of credibility change across the lifespan.
c. Limitation of the study
Children were unable to monitor their own behavior; this was reflected on their way of understanding limitations of their own knowledge. This is so as they were unable to process complex information that linked between confidence and accuracy in others’ behavior (Tenney, Small, Kondrad, Jaswal & Spellman, 2011). Moreover, they showed a markedly poorer link between their ratings of confidence and the accuracy of their assertions compared to adults.
Tenney R. E, Small E. J, Kondrad L. R, Jaswal K. V & Spellman A. B (2011) Accuracy,
Confidence, and Calibration: How Young Children and Adults Assess Credibility,
Volume 47, No 4, 1065-1077, University of Virginia.
