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Three- and 5-year-old children's understanding of how to dissolve a joint commitment.
Abstract
When young children form a joint commitment with a partner, they understand that this
agreement generates obligations. In this study, we investigated whether young children
understand that joint commitments, and their associated obligations, may likewise
be dissolved by agreement. The participants (3- and 5-year-olds; N = 144) formed a
joint commitment with a puppet to play a collaborative game. In one condition, the
puppet asked permission to break off and the children agreed; in a second condition,
the puppet notified the children of his or her leaving; and in a third condition,
the puppet just left abruptly. Children at both ages protested more and waited longer
for the puppet's return (and said that the puppet deserved scolding and no prize at
the end) when the puppet left abruptly than in the other two conditions (with "asking
permission" leading to the least protest of all). Overall, 3-year-olds protested more,
and waited longer for the partner's return, than 5-year-olds. Preschool children understand
that the obligations of a joint commitment may be dissolved by agreement or, to a
lesser degree, by notification.
Type
Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19169Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1016/j.jecp.2019.03.008Publication Info
Kachel, Ulrike; Svetlova, Margarita; & Tomasello, Michael (2019). Three- and 5-year-old children's understanding of how to dissolve a joint commitment.
Journal of experimental child psychology, 184. pp. 34-47. 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.03.008. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19169.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Margarita Lvovna Svetlova
Assistant Research Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
This author no longer has a Scholars@Duke profile, so the information shown here reflects
their Duke status at the time this item was deposited.
Michael Tomasello
James F. Bonk Distinguished Professor
Major research interests in processes of social cognition, social learning, cooperation,
and communication from developmental, comparative, and cultural perspectives. Current
theoretical focus on processes of shared intentionality. Empirical research mainly
with human children from 1 to 4 years of age and great apes.
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