“Not See, Not Hear, Not Speak”: Preschoolers Think They Cannot Perceive or Address Others Without Reciprocity

Abstract

A curious phenomenon in early social-cognitive development has been identified: Preschoolers deny that they can see others who cannot also see them (Russell, Gee, & Bullard, 2012). The exclusive focus on vision has suggested that this effect is limited to gaze, but children’s negations might reflect a broader phenomenon that extends to vocal communication. In Experiment 1 (N = 24), 3- to 4-year-olds were asked if they could see an agent whose eyes were covered, hear an agent whose ears were covered, and speak to an agent whose mouth was covered. In all cases, negative responses were more frequent than in a control condition in which the facial area was unoccluded. Experiment 2 (N = 24) provided evidence that children’s negations did not result from a misunderstanding of the questions. The findings suggest that young children apply a principle of reciprocal relatedness that is not limited to gaze.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Corey Pettit, Jungwon Min, Lillie Moffett, Angela Nazarian, and the children’s museum Kidspace in Pasadena, CA, for assistance with data collection. Thanks also to Shannon Potts and Nicholas Jackson for statistical advice and to the families who participated in this study.

Funding

Henrike Moll thanks the John Templeton Foundation and the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study for their support.

Additional information

Funding

Henrike Moll thanks the John Templeton Foundation and the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study for their support.