Preschool Children's Difficulty Understanding the Types of Information Obtained through the Five Senses

Daniela K. O’Neill · Selena Chong

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Child and Animal Learning Development Science Education and Pedagogy Early Childhood Education and Development

Abstract

Two studies explored 3- and 4-year-olds' (N = 60) understanding that the five senses can each lead to different types of knowledge. In Study 1, 40 children engaged in five scenarios in which they could only perform one sensory action to identify the property of an object (e.g., color, scent). After performing the action, children were asked how they found out the property and to show the experimenter how they had found it out. Using a Mr. Potato Head doll, children were also asked to indicate the sensory organ the doll would need to use to identify the property. In Study 2, 20 children presented with five Mr. Potato Head dolls, each sporting only one sensory organ (e.g., a nose), were asked which Mr. Potato Head could find out the property in question. The 3-year-olds performed significantly poorer than the 4-year-olds on all tasks, suggesting a marked transition in children's ability to recognize the origin of their modality-specific knowledge during the time period between 3 and 4 years of age.

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References

1983Knowledge and the Flow of Information.1993Understanding the Representational Mind 1988Knowing How You Know: Young Children's Ability to Identify and Remember the Sources of Their Beliefs 1988Children's Understanding of Informational Access as Source of Knowledge 1989Early understanding of perception as a source of knowledge 1971Seeing and Knowing.1992Young Children's Understanding of the Role That Sensory Experiences Play in Knowledge Acquisition 1981Generalized event representations: basic building blocks of cognitive development

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2013The development of children's information gathering: To look or to ask?2015Theory of mind selectively predicts preschoolers’ knowledge‐based selective word learning 2010Social Engagement Leads 2‐Year‐Olds to Overestimate Others’ Knowledge 2007How an appreciation of conventionality shapes early word learning 2007“They Danced Around in My Head and I Learned Them”: Children's Developing Conceptions of Learning

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