Children's Distinctions among Matters of Intellectual Convention, Logic, Fact, and Personal Preference

Abstract

NICHOLLS, JOHN G., and THORKILDSEN, THERESA A. Children's Distinctions among Matters of Intellectual Convention, Logic, Fact, and Personal Preference. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1988, 59, 939-949. First-, third-, and fifth-grade students (7-, 9-, and 11-year-olds) saw matters involving intellectual conventions and personal preference as more variable across time and space than matters involving logic and physical laws. Furthermore, intellectual conventions were seen as legitimately changeable by social consensus and (less clearly) school authorities, but not on the basis of personal desire. On matters of logic and physical law, however, the positions individuals can legitimately espouse were not seen as legitimately changeable by school authorities or on the basis of social consensus or personal desire. It was seen as legitimate for teachers to teach students standard correct answers on matters of intellectual convention, logic, and fact, but not for matters of personal preference. Only in the last case was it seen as legitimate for teachers to allow free choice and diverse positions. Judgments about the changeability of conventions were distinguishable from judgments about the legitimacy of such changes. Reliable individual differences in these judgments were found. Age differences, however, were not strong.