Children's understanding of posterior probability

Cognition. 2008 Jan;106(1):325-44. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2007.02.005. Epub 2007 Mar 27.

Abstract

Do young children have a basic intuition of posterior probability? Do they update their decisions and judgments in the light of new evidence? We hypothesized that they can do so extensionally, by considering and counting the various ways in which an event may or may not occur. The results reported in this paper showed that from the age of five, children's decisions under uncertainty (Study 1) and judgments about random outcomes (Study 2) are correctly affected by posterior information. From the same age, children correctly revise their decisions in situations in which they face a single, uncertain event, produced by an intentional agent (Study 3). The finding that young children have some understanding of posterior probability supports the theory of naive extensional reasoning, and contravenes some pessimistic views of probabilistic reasoning, in particular the evolutionary claim that the human mind cannot deal with single-case probability.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Association Learning
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Choice Behavior
  • Color Perception
  • Comprehension*
  • Decision Making*
  • Feedback, Psychological
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Intuition*
  • Judgment
  • Male
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual
  • Personal Construct Theory
  • Probability Learning*
  • Psychology, Child*
  • Set, Psychology