Do children imitate even when it is costly? New insights from a novel task
Abstract
Children have a proclivity to learn through faithful imitation, but the extent to which this applies under significant cost remains unclear. To address this, we investigated whether 4- to 6-year-old children (N = 97) would stop imitating to forego a desirable food reward. We presented participants with a task involving arranging marshmallows and craft sticks, with the goal being either to collect marshmallows or build a tower. Children replicated the demonstrated actions with high fidelity regardless of the goal, but retrieved rewards differently. Children either copied the specific actions needed to build a tower, prioritizing tower completion over reward; or adopted a novel convention of stacking materials before collecting marshmallows, and developed their own method to achieve better outcomes. These results suggest children's social learning decisions are flexible and context-dependent, yet that when framed by an ostensive goal, children imitated in adherence to the goal despite incurring significant material costs.
Citation
Zhao , M , Fong , F T K , Whiten , A & Nielsen , M 2023 , ' Do children imitate even when it is costly? New insights from a novel task ' , British Journal of Developmental Psychology , vol. Early View . https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12463
Publication
British Journal of Developmental Psychology
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0261-510XType
Journal article
Description
This study was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project Grant to Mark Nielsen and Andrew Whiten (DP140101410).Collections
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