How children learn from others

Broadly speaking, I am interested in how children use their social understanding when deciding what, or from whom, they should learn. Research projects study this question from multiple perspectives, such as:

Who will children believe? (ages 3-6) If someone has a bad track record, consistently telling you things that you know to be false, will you believe them later? If someone tries to tell you something that they couldn’t know (e.g., the colour of a toy after having felt it), will you believe them? This work explores children’s understanding of what makes someone a good source of information.

Who will children ask? (ages 2-6) As adults, if we need to find out the answer to a question, we will generally choose the person who is most likely to give us the right answer. Do children do the same? We were surprised to find out that they do not, and this line of work explores this puzzle. How do children direct their own learning through asking questions?

Who will children imitate? (ages 14 months – 5 years) In this new line of research, we are investigating how even younger children choose who they learn from, by inviting them to imitate an actor. Under what circumstances will children imitate, and how strong is this learning?

These projects will be based at the very active Kent Child Development Unit (http://www.kent.ac.uk/psychology/childdevelopmentunit/) where you will be part of a busy, enthusiastic team of researchers.

There are opportunities to work in any of these areas; please write if you would like to know more. More information about work in my lab can also be found here: http://www.kent.ac.uk/psychology/people/nurmsooe/