Nurmsoo, Erika and Robinson, Elizabeth J. (2009) Children’s
Trust in Previously Inaccurate Informants Who Were Well or
Poorly Informed: When Past Errors Can Be Excused. Child
Development, 80 (1). pp. 23-27. ISSN 0009-3920. |The full text
of this publication is not available from this repository.
(Contact us about this Publication)| Past research demonstrates
that children learn from a previously accurate speaker rather
than from a previously inaccurate one. This study shows that
children do not necessarily treat a previously inaccurate
speaker as unreliable. Rather, they appropriately excuse past
inaccuracy arising from the speaker’s limited information
access. Children (N 5 67) aged 3, 4, and 5 years aimed to
identify a hidden toy in collaboration with a puppet as
informant. When the puppet had previously been inaccurate
despite having full information, children tended to ignore what
they were told and guess for themselves: They treated the puppet
as unreliable in the longer term. However, children more freq