Learning with certainty in childhood. Issue 10 (October 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Baer, Carolyn; Kidd, Celeste
• Is Part Of: Trends in cognitive sciences. Volume 26:Issue 10(2022)
• Page Start: 887
• Page End: 896
• Publication Date: 2022-10
• Subjects: certainty -- learning -- metacognition -- development; Cognitive science -- Periodicals; Cognitive neuroscience -- Periodicals; 153.05
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.07.010
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1364-6613

Abstract

Abstract : Learners use certainty to guide learning. They maintain existing beliefs when certain, but seek further information when they feel uninformed. Here, we review developmental evidence that this metacognitive strategy does not require reportable processing. Uncertainty prompts nonverbal human infants and nonhuman animals to engage in strategies like seeking help, searching for additional information, or opting out. Certainty directs children's attention and active learning strategies and provides a common metric for comparing and integrating conflicting beliefs across people. We conclude that certainty is a continuous, domain-general signal of belief quality even early in life. Highlights: Intelligent organisms use uncertainty to guide them towards material that is useful for learning and integrate observations with existing beliefs. Human adults' verbal reports of certainty predict information-seeking and belief change, which makes clear that certainty facilitates learning but leaves ambiguous whether a reportable representation is required. Recent work that used novel behavioral measures of certainty demonstrates that nonverbal infants and nonhuman animals represent their certainty as a graded and domain-neutral signal. Uncertainty guides children's information seeking and acts as a common metric to compare and integrate multiple information sources across diverse cognitive domains. Using certainty to guide learning is thus an early emerging phenomenon rather than an advanced one.