Newsletter Winter 2005
Web: www.kidstudiescentre.com
E-mail: kidlab@psych.ubc.ca
Phone: (604)822-6615
Dear Families,
Welcome to the first semi-annual edition of our K.I.D. Studies newsletter. We’ve mailed this newsletter to
you because you have participated in one of our studies in the past and expressed interest in receiving
information about the general results of our research. If you would prefer to be removed from our mailing list
so that you do not receive future newsletters simply call us at (604) 822-6615 or email us at
kidlab@psych.ubc.ca. We hope you enjoy reading about our research. Without your participation, this
research would not be possible. Thank you for your support!
K.I.D. Studies Centre,
Dr. Susan Birch & fellow researchers
Our Latest Research Findings
Children Prefer to Learn from People that Have Been More
Knowledgeable in the Past
We acquire the vast majority of our knowledge from other people. This social transmission of information allows
us to learn infinitely more about the world than would be possible if we were restricted to learning through our
personal experiences. Passive absorption of socially transmitted information, however, would lead to impoverished
and often inaccurate learning. People differ in their levels of knowledge, their areas of expertise, and their ability to
convey information. Furthermore, in human communication people sometimes convey mistaken information out of
ignorance, relay information that they are uncertain about, or may even intentionally lie and convey incorrect
information. Thus, it is advantageous for a learner to actively assess when, if, and for what types of information,
their social partners are credible sources of knowledge from which to learn.
Our research explores when children begin to spontaneously keep track of
people’s history of being reliable or knowledgeable and how this influences
their learning. One way we study this is by playing games with 3- and 4-yearCommonly
old children in which one puppet demonstrates a history of being
Puppet Ben known objects knowledgeable and accurate by labeling commonly known objects (such as a
spoon) correctly, whereas the other puppet demonstrates a history of being inaccurate by mislabeling common
objects (e.g., calling a “spoon” a “fork”). Later on, the puppets teach the
children the names for novel objects and we test who the child learns more
words from. Our findings from these and similar studies demonstrate that by
three years of age children generally keep track of how reliable someone has
Novel objects Puppet Jenny
been in the past (at least in the recent past) and learn more information from
the person with the better track-record.
Current Projects and Questions of Interest
Kids tune into non-verbal cues
We are interested in children’s ability to interpret other people’s nonverbal cues that indicate either uncertainty
(e.g., shoulder shrugging, head tilting, decreased rate of speech) or knowledge and confidence (e.g., crossing arms,
head nodding, strong posture), and their ability to use this information to learn about new objects. In Part 1 of our
study, we show children a set of videos of two actors manipulating different novel objects. One actor performs an
action with an object while demonstrating non-verbal cues of confidence and knowledge; the other actor performs
a different action with the same object while demonstrating non-verbal cues of uncertainty. Our research explores
the age at which children begin to be sensitive to these cues and how such social cues influence what children
learn. In Part 2 of our study, we show children videos of the same two actors labeling pairs of novel objects with
novel words. One person labels one object (e.g., “bappy”) with signs of confidence and knowledge; the other
person labels the other object with the same word while
demonstrating uncertainty (e.g. raising the intonation in her
voice). We are interested in whether children tune into
these non-verbal and paralinguistic cues and prefer to learn
words from the individual who seems more confident in her
word usage. Preliminary results suggest that preschool children are sensitive to such non-verbal cues and can use
such cues to guide their decisions about who to trust and who is the best source to learn from. Children prefer to
learn about new words and new objects from individuals that indicate that they are confident in the information
they are conveying. These results expand upon a growing body of literature that demonstrates the variety of
inferences children make to facilitate their learning process.
been more accurate or reliable in the past.
Recent Developments
 Becoming part of the Early Development Research Group (EDRG)
Formed by four labs at UBC that conduct research on
infants & toddlers:

Dr. Susan Birch’s K.I.D. Studies Centre

Dr. Janet Werker’s Infant Studies Centre

Dr. Geoff Hall’s Language Development Centre

Dr. Fei Xu’s Baby Cognition Lab
Once again, thank you so much for your support!
If you have questions or wish to be added to the
registry, contact us at: (604) 822-9540,
earlydev@psych.ubc.ca or complete the online
form at http://edrg.psych.ubc.ca/
EDRG is a unified registry to avoid excessive demands on parents whose names appear in the database of more
than one lab. If you agree to be added to the registry (or have already agreed to it), we will call you when your
child is at the appropriate age for a study. While all four individual research centers will have access to your
contact information, this does not mean that you will be called more often. In fact, the registry helps us avoid
having two different labs call you within a very short time frame. Our goal is to make your important participation
in our research as convenient and easy for you as possible. Also, this does not mean the other labs will have access
to you and your child’s data since only your contact information is shared if you agree. The utmost care is taken to
ensure all personal information about your child’s performance remains confidential and appears in our individual
databases, where only authorized personnel have access, and identified by subject number only.
Parents…
Have some time to spare while waiting??
NOW PARENTS CAN PARTICIPATE TOO!!!
Adults’ Knowledge of Facts & Words
This study looks at how adults assess knowledge about facts & words in
themselves & in others. In particular, we are interested in better understanding
the factors that affect our ability to judge what others are likely to know (to take
another’s perspective).
Complete some questionnaires that ask for your knowledge of trivia facts &
word meanings. We’ll ask you to estimate the likelihood of others knowing the
same information, & you’ll be asked to reflect on how you made your judgment.
Participate for a 3o-minute session & receive a book and/or
refreshments of your choice from our selection!!!
A report on Dr. Susan
Birch’s research can be
found in Jul 8 news archive
www.arts.ubc.ca named
Learning how to learn.
If you have any questions or
comments, please feel free to
contact us at:
UBC K.I.D. Studies
Centre
C/o Dr. Susan Birch
Department of Psychology
2136 West Mall
Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1
Ongoing & Upcoming Projects
 Do children revise words they learnt previously?
A Special Thank you to the following centers for their participation in our research:
A, and, B, and X