Do Children Copy an Expert or a Majority? Examining Selective Learning in Instrumental and Normative Contexts.
This study examined whether instrumental and normative learning contexts differentially influence 4- to 7-year-old children's social learning strategies; specifically, their dispositions to copy an expert versus a majority consensus. Experiment 1 (N = 44) established that children copied a rela...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2016-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5074571?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1819326978386296832 |
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| author | Emily R R Burdett Amanda J Lucas Daphna Buchsbaum Nicola McGuigan Lara A Wood Andrew Whiten |
| author_facet | Emily R R Burdett Amanda J Lucas Daphna Buchsbaum Nicola McGuigan Lara A Wood Andrew Whiten |
| author_sort | Emily R R Burdett |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This study examined whether instrumental and normative learning contexts differentially influence 4- to 7-year-old children's social learning strategies; specifically, their dispositions to copy an expert versus a majority consensus. Experiment 1 (N = 44) established that children copied a relatively competent "expert" individual over an incompetent individual in both kinds of learning context. In experiment 2 (N = 80) we then tested whether children would copy a competent individual versus a majority, in each of the two different learning contexts. Results showed that individual children differed in strategy, preferring with significant consistency across two different test trials to copy either the competent individual or the majority. This study is the first to show that children prefer to copy more competent individuals when shown competing methods of achieving an instrumental goal (Experiment 1) and provides new evidence that children, at least in our "individualist" culture, may consistently express either a competency or majority bias in learning both instrumental and normative information (Experiment 2). This effect was similar in the instrumental and normative learning contexts we applied. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-24T13:03:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-808c6c738b264c9f8a078c0015d55107 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-24T13:03:32Z |
| publishDate | 2016-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-808c6c738b264c9f8a078c0015d551072022-12-21T16:54:05ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032016-01-011110e016469810.1371/journal.pone.0164698Do Children Copy an Expert or a Majority? Examining Selective Learning in Instrumental and Normative Contexts.Emily R R BurdettAmanda J LucasDaphna BuchsbaumNicola McGuiganLara A WoodAndrew WhitenThis study examined whether instrumental and normative learning contexts differentially influence 4- to 7-year-old children's social learning strategies; specifically, their dispositions to copy an expert versus a majority consensus. Experiment 1 (N = 44) established that children copied a relatively competent "expert" individual over an incompetent individual in both kinds of learning context. In experiment 2 (N = 80) we then tested whether children would copy a competent individual versus a majority, in each of the two different learning contexts. Results showed that individual children differed in strategy, preferring with significant consistency across two different test trials to copy either the competent individual or the majority. This study is the first to show that children prefer to copy more competent individuals when shown competing methods of achieving an instrumental goal (Experiment 1) and provides new evidence that children, at least in our "individualist" culture, may consistently express either a competency or majority bias in learning both instrumental and normative information (Experiment 2). This effect was similar in the instrumental and normative learning contexts we applied.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5074571?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Emily R R Burdett Amanda J Lucas Daphna Buchsbaum Nicola McGuigan Lara A Wood Andrew Whiten Do Children Copy an Expert or a Majority? Examining Selective Learning in Instrumental and Normative Contexts. PLoS ONE |
| title | Do Children Copy an Expert or a Majority? Examining Selective Learning in Instrumental and Normative Contexts. |
| title_full | Do Children Copy an Expert or a Majority? Examining Selective Learning in Instrumental and Normative Contexts. |
| title_fullStr | Do Children Copy an Expert or a Majority? Examining Selective Learning in Instrumental and Normative Contexts. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Do Children Copy an Expert or a Majority? Examining Selective Learning in Instrumental and Normative Contexts. |
| title_short | Do Children Copy an Expert or a Majority? Examining Selective Learning in Instrumental and Normative Contexts. |
| title_sort | do children copy an expert or a majority examining selective learning in instrumental and normative contexts |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5074571?pdf=render |
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