Children begin to seek evidence that enables them to test fishy-sounding claims in early elementary school, suggests a study in Developmental Psychology. Researchers showed 191 Chinese preschool – and elementary-school-age children (ages 3 to 8) several different-size Russian nesting dolls and asked the children which doll was heaviest. Nearly all the children chose the biggest doll. Next, and adult experimenter told half the children that the smallest doll was the heaviest (a counterintuitive claim) and told the other half that the biggest doll was the heaviest. When the experimenter left the. room, elementary-school-age children who heard the counterintuitive claim (smallest=heaviest) explored the dolls more than those who heard the intuitive one (biggest=heaviest). Among preschoolers, however, the amount of exploration did not differ between the two groups. (Monitor on Psychology)

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