Developing Concepts of Ordinary and Extraordinary Communication

We examine how understandings of ordinary and extraordinary communication develop. Three- to 10-year-old children and adults (N = 183) were given scenarios in which a protagonist wanted help from a human (their parent) or from God. Scenarios varied in whether protagonists expressed their desires alo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Developmental psychology 2016-01, Vol.52 (1), p.19-30
Main Authors: Lane, Jonathan D., Evans, E. Margaret, Brink, Kimberly A., Wellman, Henry M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustics
Adults
Age Differences
Auditory Perception
Child
Child Development
Child, Preschool
Childhood
Childhood Development
Children
Cognition - physiology
Communication
Communication (Thought Transfer)
Concept Formation
Cross Cultural Differences
Developmental psychology
Female
Geographic Location
God
God Concepts
Gods
Human
Humans
Individual Development
Male
Michigan
Religion
Social Perception
Sound intensity
Speech Communication
Task performance
Theory of Mind
Vignettes
Young Adult
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Summary:We examine how understandings of ordinary and extraordinary communication develop. Three- to 10-year-old children and adults (N = 183) were given scenarios in which a protagonist wanted help from a human (their parent) or from God. Scenarios varied in whether protagonists expressed their desires aloud (by asking) or silently (by hoping), whether (for human scenarios) parents were nearby or far away, and whether (for God scenarios) protagonists expressed desires through ordinary means (asking or hoping) or more extraordinary means (praying). Following each scenario, participants were asked whether the recipient (either the parent or God) was aware of the protagonist's desire. Children as young as 3 to 4 years old understood that both loudness and distance limit the effectiveness of human communication, reporting that humans would most likely be aware of desires when they were expressed both aloud and nearby. As well, by this age children reported that God would more often be aware of desires than would humans, but children of all ages often reported that God (like humans) would be more aware of desires expressed aloud (rather than silently). These concepts of ordinary and extraordinary communication continued to be refined through middle childhood. Children's performance on standard theory-of-mind tasks and participants' religious background predicted whether they attributed awareness to God.
ISSN:0012-1649
1939-0599
DOI:10.1037/dev0000061