Developmental changes in judgments of authentic objects
Section snippets
Developmental changes in judgments of authentic objects
For adults, objects can become special by virtue of their history: the first edition of a book, a dress worn by Princess Diana, your grandmother's engagement ring—all are judged differently when one knows their origins. Placing value on authentic things (those that have an historical link to a person, event, time, or place of some significance) often entails overlooking outward appearances and focusing instead on non-obvious qualities. Two items can be otherwise identical but treated very
Participants
Participants included preschoolers (N = 43, mean age = 4–1, SD = 4.44 months; 22 girls, 21 boys), kindergartners (N = 24, mean age = 5–7, SD = 4.68 months; 11 girls, 13 boys), 1st graders (N = 22, mean age = 7–3, SD = 4.32 months; 11 girls, 11 boys), 4th graders (N = 23, mean age = 10–1, SD = 4.08 months; 15 girls, 8 boys), and college undergraduates (N = 119, mean age = 19; 62 women, 57 men). One preschool-aged child was eliminated because she answered both warm-up items incorrectly on the Museum task.
Preschool and
Museum knowledge
We coded children's responses to the museum questions in two respects: (a) whether they reported ever having been to a museum (coded as “yes” if the child indicated they had visited a museum, including when the younger children pointed to one of the pictures of museums we provided), and (b) whether they were able to accurately describe a museum and/or its contents. Responses were classified into 7 categories: original creations, famous associations, personal associations, items that are “old”
Discussion
By 3–4 years of age, children have a nascent understanding that the historical path of an authentic object affects its nature, even in the absence of visible evidence. Children appear to recognize the special nature of authentic objects by reporting that objects that are original, or that belong to a famous individual, belong in a museum. This result cannot be attributed to the overall desirability of the objects, for three reasons: (1) the famous associations were physically equivalent to the
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by an NSF graduate research fellowship to the first author and NICHD grant HD-36043 to the second author. We are grateful to the parents, teachers, and children at the University of Michigan Children's Centers and the Charles Brown School of El Dorado, California, for participating in this research.
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