Introspection on uncertainty and judicious help-seeking during the preschool years

Little is known about the mechanisms underlying a ubiquitous behavior in preschoolers, help‐seeking. We tested the hypothesis that preschoolers' awareness of their own uncertainty is associated with help‐seeking. Three‐, 4‐, and 5‐year‐olds (N = 125) completed a perceptual identification task twice: once independently and once when they could request help from a confederate whose competence level was manipulated. Consistent with our hypothesis, participants sought help more frequently on trials for which, when required to answer independently, they expressed lower confidence. Children in the bad‐helper condition were slower to respond after receiving help than those in the good‐helper condition. Finally, females and children with more advanced theory of mind were more likely to seek help, identifying additional factors that relate to help‐seeking. How do young children decide when to ask for help? We investigated this question by having preschoolers complete an identical perceptual discrimination task under two conditions: a standard condition in which they were forced to answer independently, and a help condition in which they could ask for help. Participants asked for help on trials for which, when they were forced to answer independently in the standard condition, they were least confident and accurate; this suggests they used available help to judiciously to improve their overall performance. Although perceived helper competence did not affect overt performance, participants in a ‘bad helper’ condition were slower to respond after receiving help compared to those in a ‘good helper’ condition.