Young Children’s Judgments of Counter-Intuitive Information and Its Relation with Executive Function

Abstract

Objectives: This study examined young children’s judgments of counter-intuitive information, and whether their judgments relate to the executive function and theory of mind.Methods: Ninety-two children aged 3 to 6 years were provided with counter-intuitive information that the smallest doll was the heaviest among five Russian dolls in a one-on-one interview with a researcher. Subsequently, how children judged the weights of the dolls, whether they did an experiment to check the weights during the researcher’s absence, how they judged the weights upon the researcher’s suggestion, and whether their judgments were related to the executive function and theory of mind were examined.Results: Following the researcher’s counter-intuitive information, the 3-year-olds were more likely to judge that the smallest one might be the heaviest. Further, spontaneous experiments during the researcher’s absence were conducted only among a small number of children aged 4-years and up. There were no more differences in judgments of weight among age groups of children when it came to checking the actual weights of the dolls upon the researcher’s suggestion. Additionally, children with better inhibitory and shifting ability tended to judge the heaviest doll based on their own intuition. A multiple regression analysis, controlling for relevant variables showed that only shifting ability predicted the children’s judgments based on their intuition before the suggested experiment.Conclusion: With age, young children may come to judge a physical situation based on their own clear intuition, rather than merely following another’s counter-intuitive information. This tendency appears to be related to the executive function, especially shifting ability.