Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Adults tend to make biased inferences when they are givenbase-rates that conflict with individuating information (i.e., apersonality description). More recent work has shown thatchildren rely on individuating information by the age of 6,though 4-year-olds rely more on numerical information,arguably providing the more normative response (Gualtieri &Denison, 2018). In two experiments (N = 80 per experiment),we explored age differences in 4- and 6-year-old children’sability to integrate base-rate and individuating information bymanipulating the strength of the information provided. Four-year-olds’ responses reflected more base-rate use, regardless ofthe strength of the individuating information. Six-year-oldsweighed the information at hand, showing a general preferencefor the individuating information but relying more on the base-rates when the individuating information was less informative.Though younger preschoolers may overuse base-rateinformation, with development there is an increased sensitivitytoward individuating information and weighing information.