| dc.description.abstract | Research on adults and older adolescents has indicated
that verbal and nonverbal coimnunication cues are utilized by
listeners to assess speaker truthfulness and sincerity. Some
evidence suggests that truthfulness is inferred from the
consistency between these two types of cues. The present
study was designed to assess whether, and if so, at what age
children use a consistency principle to determine truth and
lying. Twenty subjects (10 boys and 10 girls) from each of
kindergarten, second, and fourth grade were shown videotapes
of male and female stimulus persons providing concomitant
verbal and nonverbal cues of matched valence (consistent) or
of mismatched valence (inconsistent). After each
verbal-nonverbal communication subjects were asked to judge
whether the stimulus person was telling the truth or lying.
Results indicated that a consistency pattern was evident by
fourth grade (age 9). Additionally, sex differences were
found indicating that the consistency pattern was more evident
in females than in males. | |
