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 children’s interpretation of others’ history of informativeness. This study investigates how preschoolers make trait inferences and pragmatic inferences about informants differing in informativeness, and how trait inference and pragmatic abilities affect their selective learning. Four- and five-year-olds (N = 64) observed two informants who have differential access to a series of conjunctive causal events (full versus partial). They were then asked to make pragmatic and trait inferences about the informants before they selected one of the informants to learn from. Five-year-old children, but not 4-year-olds, selected the informative speaker to learn from. This pattern of selective learning held only for those children who identified the informative speaker as smart and for those children who were capable of inferring the epistemic state of informants from the strength of statements. Our findings suggest that trait reasoning and pragmatic ability play crucial roles in children’s selective learning.