The role of epistemic and social characteristics in children’s selective trust: Three meta‐analyses

Over the last 15 years, researchers have been increasingly interested in understanding the nature and development of children’s selective trust. Three meta‐analyses were conducted on a total of 51 unique studies (88 experiments) to provide a quantitative overview of 3‐ to 6‐year‐old children’s selective trust in an informant based on the informant’s epistemic or social characteristics, and to examine the relation between age and children’s selective trust decisions. The first and second meta‐analyses found that children displayed medium‐to‐large pooled effects in favor of trusting the informant who was knowledgeable or the informant with positive social characteristics. Moderator analyses revealed that 4‐year‐olds were more likely to endorse knowledgeable informants than 3‐year‐olds. The third meta‐analysis examined cases where two informants simultaneously differed in their epistemic and social characteristics. The results revealed that 3‐year‐old children did not selectively endorse informants who were more knowledgeable but had negative social characteristics over informants who were less knowledgeable but had positive social characteristics. However, 4‐ to 6‐year‐olds consistently prioritized epistemic cues over social characteristics when deciding who to trust. Together, these meta‐analyses suggest that epistemic and social characteristics are both valuable to children when they evaluate the reliability of informants. Moreover, with age, children place greater value on epistemic characteristics when deciding whether to endorse an informant’s testimony. Implications for the development of epistemic trust and the design of studies of children’s selective trust are discussed.     

Paradigms in Measure Theoretic Learning and in Informant Learning

We investigate many paradigms of identifications for classes of languages (namely: consistent learning, EX learning, learning with finitely many errors, behaviorally correct learning, and behaviorally correct learning with finitely many errors) in a measure-theoretic context, and we relate such paradigms to their analogues in learning on informants. Roughly speaking, the results say that most paradigms in measure-theoretic learning wrt some classes of distributions (called canonical) are equivalent to the corresponding paradigms for identification on informants.     

Aggressive strategies and victimization during adolescence: grade and gender differences,and cross‐informant agreement

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to analyze the frequency of physical, verbal, and indirect aggression as well as victimization across two genders and grades and (2) to assess the concordance among different informants. According to the answers provided by 257 fifth and seventh graders (mean age 11.4 and 13.5, respectively) in the Peer Estimated Conflict Behavior Questionnaire, four types of ratings were calculated: same‐ and opposite‐gender rating, rating by both genders, and self‐report. Additionally, teacher ratings were collected. In contrast to earlier findings, boys were found to be directly, as well as indirectly, more aggressive than girls, thus challenging the universality of indirect aggression as a strategy more frequently employed by girls. Consistencies among different informants varied, with peers showing the strongest agreement with each other and self‐views conforming the least to other ratings.Aggr. Behav. 00:1–12, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

群集化儿童问题行为核查表的中文版修订

将Frick等人的群集化儿童问题行为核查表（the clustering child behaviors checklist,CCBCL）修订为中文版自我报告问卷、教师评定问卷和同伴评定问卷。以529名初一学生为被试进行间卷修订。结果发现：Frick等人提出的外化问题行为框架适合研究中国儿童青少年的外化问题行为,探索性因子分析证明中文版问卷的因子结构与原文卷一致;自我报告、教师评定和同伴评定版问卷的内部一致性系数、分半系数和重测信度系数都在可接受的范围内,且自我报告版问卷中财物损害的各信度系数较低;自我报告结果与同伴拒绝的相关不显著。而教师评定和同伴评定的结果均与同伴拒绝相关显著;同伴评定问卷的各信度系数及通过其获得的测量结果与同伴拒绝的相关性均高于其它两种问卷。     

The reliability, stability, and predictive utility of the self-report version of the Antisocial Process Screening Device

The psychometric properties of the self-report version of the Antisocial Processes Screening Device (APSD; Frick & Hare, 2001), a rating scale developed to assess traits associated with the construct of psychopathy in youth, was tested in a sample of 91 non-referred young adolescents with an average age of 13.38 (SD = 1.75) at the initial assessment. The sample was recruited from a large community-wide screening, where youth with conduct problems and youth high on psychopathic traits were over-sampled. The sample was reassessed three times at yearly intervals. The self-report scores on the APSD showed moderate correlations with parent ratings of psychopathic traits, were moderately stable across 1-2 years, and showed significant correlations with measures of antisocial behavior both concurrently and predictively. One major weakness of the self-report ratings was the low internal consistency of the subscales, which were much lower than the internal consistency found on the parent report version of the scale.     

Personality in the age of industry: Structure,heritability, and correlates of personality in middle childhood from the perspective of parents,teachers, and children

Middle childhood is a crucial juncture in the lifespan where children work toward achieving a sense of competence foundational for future development. However, middle childhood has historically been underrepresented in the personality literature. The current study provides a comprehensive examination of personality in middle childhood using a large (N = 2510), longitudinal sample of 10- to 12-year-old twins. The structure, heritability, and correlates of personality in this period were investigated using personality ratings of parents, teachers, and children. Results showed that personality in middle childhood has a coherent structure, is heritable, and is relevant for developmentally salient outcomes such as externalizing behavior, substance use, and academic engagement. Results emphasize the importance of investigating personality in middle childhood across multiple informants.     

儿童社会认识论:儿童对信息提供者的选择性信任

个体掌握的知识很多来自于他人的传授。从4岁起,儿童就意识到不同的信息提供者在可靠性上存在差异。他们根据与提供者间的熟悉程度、提供者过往陈词的准确性、以及来自他人的线索等策略对于信息提供者的可靠性进行评估,从而决定谁更值得信任。未来关于儿童对于信息提供者选择性信任的研究应从扩展探究的知识领域、对于信息提供者其他特征的操纵、以及潜在文化差异检验等方面进行。     

Source Handler telephone interactions with covert human intelligence sources: An exploration of question types and intelligence yield

Law Enforcement Agencies gather intelligence in order to prevent criminal activity and pursue criminals. In the context of human intelligence collection, intelligence elicitation relies heavily upon the deployment of appropriate evidence-based interviewing techniques (a topic rarely covered in the extant research literature). The present research gained unprecedented access to audio recorded telephone interactions (N = 105) between Source Handlers and Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) from England and Wales. The research explored the mean use of various question types per interaction and across all questions asked in the sample, as well as comparing the intelligence yield for appropriate and inappropriate questions. Source Handlers were found to utilise vastly more appropriate questions than inappropriate questions, though they rarely used open-ended questions. Across the total interactions, appropriate questions (by far) were associated with the gathering of much of the total intelligence yield. Implications for practise are discussed.     

A multi-informant study of the influence of targets’ and perceivers’ social desirability on self-other agreement in ratings of the HEXACO personality dimensions

In the current research we evaluated the impact of socially desirable responding on the strength of self-other agreement in personality judgments. We used a multi-informant design with self- and other-reports of HEXACO personality dimensions as well as self-reported and other-reported social desirability. Analyses were based on 305 primary participants and 709 informants. As shown by the results, neither self-other agreement nor other-other agreement regarding the personality dimensions was affected by social desirability. Furthermore, significant correlations between self-rated and other-rated social desirability emerged. The results are discussed as further evidence that most social desirability scales seem to measure substantive personality traits instead of response styles.     

BRIEF-P: analysis of executive functions according to informant / BRIEF-P: análisis de las funciones ejecutivas en función del informante

Abstract

Children progressively become more independent in their ability to control their own thoughts, actions and behaviour. This change can be associated with and linked to the development of executive functions, which are observed and contrasted by parents and teachers. The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions that both parents and teachers have of the development of executive functions in children of different ages. Participants of the study included parents (N = 1,077), teachers (N = 902) and evaluated children (N = 1,979), whose ages ranged from two years to five years and 11 months. We applied the BRIEF-P test. Results showed that when comparing parents’ and teachers’ scores, there were statistically significant differences for all the clinical scales and indices. These data confirm that teachers are more sensitive to the development of executive functions than parents. We conclude that the BRIEF-P is an instrument that is sensitive to the development of executive functions and also to the informant interacting with the child.