Cargando…

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

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...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Blakey, Kirsten H., Renner, Elizabeth, Atkinson, Mark, Rafetseder, Eva, Caldwell, Christine A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8943005/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35322165
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-09092-1
_version_ 1784673425670799360
author Blakey, Kirsten H.
Renner, Elizabeth
Atkinson, Mark
Rafetseder, Eva
Caldwell, Christine A.
author_facet Blakey, Kirsten H.
Renner, Elizabeth
Atkinson, Mark
Rafetseder, Eva
Caldwell, Christine A.
author_sort Blakey, Kirsten H.
collection PubMed
description 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.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8943005
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Nature Publishing Group UK
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-89430052022-03-28 Children transition from simple associations to explicitly reasoned social learning strategies between age four and eight Blakey, Kirsten H. Renner, Elizabeth Atkinson, Mark Rafetseder, Eva Caldwell, Christine A. Sci Rep Article 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. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-03-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8943005/ /pubmed/35322165 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-09092-1 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Blakey, Kirsten H.
Renner, Elizabeth
Atkinson, Mark
Rafetseder, Eva
Caldwell, Christine A.
Children transition from simple associations to explicitly reasoned social learning strategies between age four and eight
title Children transition from simple associations to explicitly reasoned social learning strategies between age four and eight
title_full Children transition from simple associations to explicitly reasoned social learning strategies between age four and eight
title_fullStr Children transition from simple associations to explicitly reasoned social learning strategies between age four and eight
title_full_unstemmed Children transition from simple associations to explicitly reasoned social learning strategies between age four and eight
title_short Children transition from simple associations to explicitly reasoned social learning strategies between age four and eight
title_sort children transition from simple associations to explicitly reasoned social learning strategies between age four and eight
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8943005/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35322165
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-09092-1
work_keys_str_mv AT blakeykirstenh childrentransitionfromsimpleassociationstoexplicitlyreasonedsociallearningstrategiesbetweenagefourandeight
AT rennerelizabeth childrentransitionfromsimpleassociationstoexplicitlyreasonedsociallearningstrategiesbetweenagefourandeight
AT atkinsonmark childrentransitionfromsimpleassociationstoexplicitlyreasonedsociallearningstrategiesbetweenagefourandeight
AT rafetsedereva childrentransitionfromsimpleassociationstoexplicitlyreasonedsociallearningstrategiesbetweenagefourandeight
AT caldwellchristinea childrentransitionfromsimpleassociationstoexplicitlyreasonedsociallearningstrategiesbetweenagefourandeight