Anna Kołodziejczyk

Use of information on belief in creating a persuasive argument. The role of understanding first and second order false beliefs

Whether and when children can apply their developing understanding of belief to persuasion was examined using picture stories tasks. Children created or selected arguments to persuade a parent. In 2 studies, 253 children (aged 4–8 years) engaged in persuasion tasks and in first and second order false-belief reasoning tasks. The belief-relevant argument increased with age. The understanding of false beliefs proved to be a predictor of the ability to refer to the cognitive perspective of others in creating and selecting a persuasive argument. The results suggest that improvements in belief reasoning in early and middle childhood may be refl ected in social interactions such as persuasion.

This article presents a selection of Czesław Miłosz’s comments on American
culture, economy and politics during his diplomatic service in the United States in the
years 1946–1950. They were formulated in his postwar correspondence and in a series
of articles entitled “Life in the USA,” which he published in Odrodzenie under the
pseudonym of Jan M. Nowak from 1946 to 1947.

Discovering advertisement functions by children. Perceived reality and persuasiveness of advertising

Evolution in perception of advertisement in children takes place in middle and late childhood. The most significant change concerns discovering persuasive function of this form of communication. Considering advertisement as one of the forms of audiovisual transmission we can use the knowledge about the specific character of media understanding by children in order to perform a complex description of these processes in childhood.
The aim of the present study is to determine if discovering of the persuasive function of the advertisement is accompanied by changes of its realism evaluation, which is the principle of creating the genre of each media transmission specimen.
The studied population covered 165 children in five group aged between 4 and 8. The children were individually interviewed about the functions of the advertisement and the perceived reality of the information presented in it.
In the studied period of childhood the study revealed changes of the children’s view of the advertisement communication, which becomes evaluated in connection with discovery of its persuasive function. The change proceeds from perceiving advertisement similarly to educational programmes and cartoons, which educate and entertain, towards perceiving advertisement as a persuasive communication presenting real objects in the context of unreliable information.

Relational specificity of persuasion in children’s persuasive plays

Research suggests that social cognitive abilities, particularly social perspective-taking and theory of mind (ToM), play a role in the development of persuasion in early and middle childhood. In the presented study, the inner state talk and perspective-taking in a natural persuasive play context were studied to explore the relational specificity of persuading an adult or a peer. Ninety 5 to 7-year-olds participated in a novel persuasion role-play task in which children were invited to convince an interactive puppet-partner. The results showed that while persuading an adult, children more often included terms used to denote thoughts, memories, or knowledge, that is cognitive inner state talk, as compared to persuading a peer playmate, when they more often referred to emotional and motivational states. Talking about the personal perspective of the persuaded person or the shared perspective of both play-characters was connected with the use of direct-bilateral persuasive strategies, like compromise or bargaining.

Development of consumer socialisation in the light of children’s theories of mind

The paper presents the benefits that can be derived from studying consumer socialisation in the light of the development of child’s mental competences. In the beginning, the author presents how consumer socialization, the process by which young people acquire skills, knowledge and attitudes relevant to their functioning as consumers in the market place, is conceived in four different theories of: James McNeal (1992, 2007), Patti Valkenburg, Joanne Cantor (2001), Fiony Cram, Sik Hung Ng (1999), Deborah Roedder John (1999). The analysis of presented theoretical approaches show that they all emphasize the role of socio-cognitive development as developmental mechanisms crucial for the child’s improved consumer functioning, but do not explain which developmental competences are the most crucial. While the theories draw heavily on Piagetan developmental theory, the author argues that the more recent approach focusing on the development of the child’s theories of mind may prove more fruitful. The developmental changes in two areas: children’s ability to appreciate and cope with advertising and children’s influence in purchase decision can be better explained by growing mental competences of the child. The review of research on these topics generates the hypothesis that first- as well second-order mental states understanding is important for generating and understanding persuasive communication. Future studies, based on this hypothesis, can be valuable for understanding the developmental mechanisms of consumer socialisation as well as a theory of mind development in middle childhood.

W dniach 18–22 sierpnia 2009 roku w Wilnie odbyła się XIV Europejska Konferencja Psychologii Rozwojowej. Uczestników, nie tylko z krajów europejskich, gościły mury młodego Uniwersytetu Wileńskiego im. Mykolasa Romerisa. Przygotowano różnorodne formy prezentacji prac naukowych. Były to: wykłady (9), zamawiane sympozja (5), sesje tematyczne (44) oraz 7 sesji posterowych, w czasie których zaprezentowano 520 plakatów.