Article

Children transition from simple associations to explicitly reasoned social learning strategies between age four and eight

Details

Citation

Blakey KH, Renner E, Atkinson M, Rafetseder E & Caldwell CA (2022) Children transition from simple associations to explicitly reasoned social learning strategies between age four and eight. Scientific Reports, 12 (1), Art. No.: 5045. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-09092-1

Abstract
To differentiate the use of simple associations from use of explicitly reasoned selective social learning, we can look for age-related changes in children's behaviour that might signify a switch from one social learning strategy to the other. We presented 4-to 8-year-old children visiting a zoo in Scotland (N = 109) with a task in which the perceptual access of two informants was determined by the differing opacity of two screens of similar visual appearance during a hiding event. Initially success could be achieved by forming an association or inferring a rule based on salient visual (but causally irrelevant) cues. However, following a switch in the scenario, success required explicit reasoning about informants' potential to provide valuable information based on their perceptual access. Following the switch, older children were more likely to select a knowledgeable informant. This suggests that some younger children who succeeded in the pre-switch trials had inferred rules or formed associations based on superficial, yet salient, visual cues, whereas older children made the link between perceptual access and the potential to inform. This late development and apparent cognitive challenge are consistent with proposals that such capacities are linked to the distinctiveness of human cumulative culture.

Keywords
Cultural evolution; Human behaviour; Psychology

Journal
Scientific Reports: Volume 12, Issue 1

StatusPublished
FundersEuropean Commission (Horizon 2020) and MRC Medical Research Council
Publication date31/12/2022
Publication date online23/03/2022
Date accepted by journal17/03/2022
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/34094
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC
eISSN2045-2322

People (2)

Professor Christine Anna Caldwell

Professor Christine Anna Caldwell

Professor, Psychology

Dr Eva Rafetseder

Dr Eva Rafetseder

Associate Professor, Psychology

Projects (2)