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The attentional basis of deontic and moral reasoning in social situations
Title
The attentional basis of deontic and moral reasoning in social situations.
Creator
Sellers, Patrick D. II, Causey, Kayla B., Bjorklund, David F., Graduate College
Date Issued
2011-04-08
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3164796, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FADT3164796
Subject Headings
Social contract, Deontic logic, Judgment (Ethics)
Format
Document (PDF)
Attentional basis of deontic reasoning about permission rules in 3-5 year-old children
Title
Attentional basis of deontic reasoning about permission rules in 3-5 year-old children.
Creator
Sellers, Patrick D. II, Bjorklund, David F., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description
Deontic reasoning is a domain of reasoning concerning permissions, obligations, and prohibitions often utilizing conditional logic (Wason, 1968). Correct identification of rule violations is bolstered by the addition of a social valence to the rule for both adults (Tooby & Cosmides, 1992) and children (Harris & Nunez, 1996). This “deontic advantage” for violation-detection is taken as evidence for evolved social-cognitive mechanisms for reasoning about cheaters in the context of social...
Show moreDeontic reasoning is a domain of reasoning concerning permissions, obligations, and prohibitions often utilizing conditional logic (Wason, 1968). Correct identification of rule violations is bolstered by the addition of a social valence to the rule for both adults (Tooby & Cosmides, 1992) and children (Harris & Nunez, 1996). This “deontic advantage” for violation-detection is taken as evidence for evolved social-cognitive mechanisms for reasoning about cheaters in the context of social contracts (Fiddick, 2004), and the early development of this advantage supports an evolutionary account of such abilities (Cummins, 2013). The current research hypothesized that differential attention to rule elements underlies the early emergence of the deontic advantage. Accuracy to a change-detection paradigm was used to assess implicit attention to various rule elements after children were told 4 different rules (2 social contracts, 2 epistemic statements). Thirteen 3-year-olds, twenty 4-year-olds, and sixteen 5-year-olds completed the experiment. Each participant completed 64 change-detection trials embedded within a scene depicting adherence to or violation of the rule. Results indicate that 4 and 5 year-olds consistently attend to the most relevant rule information for making decisions regarding violation (F(6, 124)=3.86, p<.01, ηp 2 = .144) and that they use observed compliance/non-compliance with the rule to further direct attention (F(6, 138)=3.27, p<.01, ηp 2 = .125). Furthermore, accuracy of change-detection to scenes of rule violation increases from ages 4 to 5, but not 3 to 4. However, a novel finding emerged suggesting that children use the absence of benefit to direct attention, suggesting possible “being-cheated” detection, rather than cheater-detection (F(9, 345) = 21.855, p<.001, ηp 2 = .322). This work is the first to investigate a deontic effect on attentional processes and opens a new avenue of inquiry to understanding the internal and external variables contributing to the development of deontic reasoning. Follow up studies are currently underway to clarify how children use these environmental cues and in/out group membership to direct attention to rule violations.
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Date Issued
2014
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004159
Subject Headings
Child development, Child psychology, Judgment (Ethics), Judgment in children, Moral development, Reasoning in children
Format
Document (PDF)
Keeping an eye on cheaters: cognitive and social determinates of successful deontic reasoning in preschool children
Title
Keeping an eye on cheaters: cognitive and social determinates of successful deontic reasoning in preschool children.
Creator
Sellers, Patrick D. II, Bjorklund, David F., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description
Deontic reasoning is a domain of reasoning concerning permissions, obligations, and prohibitions founded on conditional logic (Wason,1968). The inclusion of a social valence to deontic rules leads to increased rule violation identification in both adults (Cosmides & Tooby, 1992) and children (Harris & Nunez, 1996), suggesting an evolutionary advantage for a specific class of reasoning known as “cheater-detection” (Fiddick, 2004). The current investigation is the first attempt to understand...
Show moreDeontic reasoning is a domain of reasoning concerning permissions, obligations, and prohibitions founded on conditional logic (Wason,1968). The inclusion of a social valence to deontic rules leads to increased rule violation identification in both adults (Cosmides & Tooby, 1992) and children (Harris & Nunez, 1996), suggesting an evolutionary advantage for a specific class of reasoning known as “cheater-detection” (Fiddick, 2004). The current investigation is the first attempt to understand the cognitive and social variables that account for children’s logical reasoning advantage in social violation situations.
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Date Issued
2015
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004464
Subject Headings
Cognitive neuroscience, Cognitive psychology, Deontic logic, Developmental psychology, Judgment (Ethics), Judgment in children, Moral development, Moral motivation, Practical reason, Reasoning in children
Format
Document (PDF)