Children's competency in understanding the role of a witness: truth, lies, and moral ties

✍ Scribed by Josef Perner

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 187 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0888-4080
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0720(199712)11:7<s21::aid-acp513>3.0.co;2-z

✦ Synopsis

Research is reviewed that shows the developmental steps by which children acquire understanding of the reasons why witnesses at court must speak the truth and only the truth. From as young as 2 years of age children can distinguish between true and false, and show some implicit sensitivity to the conditions under which knowledge is acquired. Explicit understanding of how knowledge is formed emerges around 4 years. At the same time children grasp the notion of false beliefs, acquire the ability to ¯exibly deceive and to judge the moral implications of lies. A clear dierentiation of lies from mistakes and other speech acts (like jokes) takes a few more years to develop. However, full appreciation of the circumstances under which one is morally obliged to speak the truth (as opposed to white lies) is not in place until around the age of 9±10 years.