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Response latencies and eye gaze provide insight on how toddlers gather evidence under uncertainty

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah Leckey

    (University of California, Davis
    University of California, Davis)

  • Diana Selmeczy

    (University of California, Davis
    University of California, Davis)

  • Alireza Kazemi

    (University of California, Davis
    University of California, Davis)

  • Elliott G. Johnson

    (University of California, Davis
    University of California, Davis)

  • Emily Hembacher

    (University of California, Davis
    University of California, Davis)

  • Simona Ghetti

    (University of California, Davis
    University of California, Davis)

Abstract

Toddlers exhibit behaviours that suggest judicious responses to states of uncertainty (for example, turning to adults for help), but little is known about the informational basis of these behaviours. Across two experiments, of which experiment 2 was a preregistered replication, 160 toddlers (aged 25 to 32 months) identified a target from two partially occluded similar (for example, elephant versus bear) or dissimilar (for example, elephant versus broccoli) images. Accuracy was lower for the similar trials than for the dissimilar trials. By fitting drift–diffusion models to response times, we found that toddlers accumulated evidence more slowly but required less evidence for similar trials compared with dissimilar trials. By analysing eye movements, we found that toddlers took longer to settle on the selected image during inaccurate trials and switched their gaze between response options more frequently during inaccurate trials and accurately identified similar items. Exploratory analyses revealed that the evidence-accumulation parameter correlated positively with the use of uncertainty language. Overall, these findings inform theories on the emergence of evidence accumulation under uncertainty.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Leckey & Diana Selmeczy & Alireza Kazemi & Elliott G. Johnson & Emily Hembacher & Simona Ghetti, 2020. "Response latencies and eye gaze provide insight on how toddlers gather evidence under uncertainty," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(9), pages 928-936, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:4:y:2020:i:9:d:10.1038_s41562-020-0913-y
    DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-0913-y
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