Elementary School-Age Children's Capacity to Choose Positive Diagnostic and Negative Diagnostic Tests

• Published in: Child development Vol. 73; no. 3; pp. 857 - 866
• Main Authors: Samuels, Mark C., McDonald, John
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, USA and Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishers Inc 01.05.2002; Blackwell Publishers; Blackwell; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Adults; Affect; Age; Age Differences; Attitudes; Bias; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child development; Childhood Attitudes; Children; Choice Behavior; Cognition; Cognition and Language; Cognitive Development; Cognitive Processes; Cognitive Structures; Developmental psychology; Diagnostic Tests; Elementary school students; Family studies; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Hypothesis testing; Learning; Logical givens; Male; Medical diagnostic tests; Memory; Problem Solving; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reasoning; Scientific reasoning; Test Bias; Tests; Thinking Skills; Human; Hypothesis test; School age; Problem solving; Adult; Cognition; Cognitive development; Experimental study; Child
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-8624.00443

Two experiments involving 72 elementary school-age children (mean age = 10 years, 3 months, range = 9,4-11,8) and 72 adults compared the ability of participants to choose positive and negative diagnostic tests over positive and negative nondiagnostic tests. Both experiments employed novel test materials, which resolved any issues regarding the effects of context on test strategy employment. In Experiment 1, both children and adults were significantly more likely to prefer positive diagnostic tests over positive nondiagnostic tests; however, only adults demonstrated a significant preference for negative diagnostic tests over positive nondiagnostic ones. In Experiment 2, both children and adults were more likely to choose negative diagnostic tests over negative nondiagnostic tests, demonstrating that despite a strong positive test bias, children could reason diagnostically in selecting among negative tests in cases in which only negative test choices were available.