Introspection on uncertainty and judicious help‐seeking during the preschool years

Abstract

Little is known about the mechanisms underlying a ubiquitous behavior in preschoolers, help-seeking. We tested the hypothesis that preschoolers' awareness of their own uncertainty is associated with help-seeking. Three-, 4-, and 5-year-olds (N = 125) completed a perceptual identification task twice: once independently and once when they could request help from a confederate whose competence level was manipulated. Consistent with our hypothesis, participants sought help more frequently on trials for which, when required to answer independently, they expressed lower confidence. Children in the bad-helper condition were slower to respond after receiving help than those in the good-helper condition. Finally, females and children with more advanced theory of mind were more likely to seek help, identifying additional factors that relate to help-seeking.

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