Does a peer model's task proficiency influence children's solution choice and innovation?
Date
11/2015Keywords
Metadata
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Abstract
The current study investigated whether 4- to 6-year-old children's task solution choice was influenced by the past proficiency of familiar peer models and the children's personal prior task experience. Peer past proficiency was established through behavioral assessments of interactions with novel tasks alongside peer and teacher predictions of each child's proficiency. Based on these assessments, one peer model with high past proficiency and one age-, sex-, dominance-, and popularity-matched peer model with lower past proficiency were trained to remove a capsule using alternative solutions from a three-solution artificial fruit task. Video demonstrations of the models were shown to children after they had either a personal successful interaction or no interaction with the task. In general, there was not a strong bias toward the high past-proficiency model, perhaps due to a motivation to acquire multiple methods and the salience of other transmission biases. However, there was some evidence of a model-based past-proficiency bias; when the high past-proficiency peer matched the participants' original solution, there was increased use of that solution, whereas if the high past-proficiency peer demonstrated an alternative solution, there was increased use of the alternative social solution and novel solutions. Thus, model proficiency influenced innovation.
Citation
Wood , L A , Kendal , R L & Flynn , E G 2015 , ' Does a peer model's task proficiency influence children's solution choice and innovation? ' , Journal of Experimental Child Psychology , vol. 139 , pp. 190-202 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2015.06.003
Publication
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0022-0965Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2015, Elsevier Inc. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at www.sciencedirect.com / https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2015.06.003
Description
This work was supported by a Durham Doctoral Fellowship to L.A.W.Collections
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