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Bigger knows better: Young children selectively learn rule games from adults rather than from peers
Author(s) -
Rakoczy Hannes.,
Hamann Katharina.,
Warneken Felix.,
Tomasello Michael.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1348/026151009x479178
Subject(s) - normative , psychology , cognition , context (archaeology) , dimension (graph theory) , developmental psychology , psychological intervention , cognitive development , social learning , cognitive psychology , social cognition , social psychology , epistemology , paleontology , pedagogy , philosophy , mathematics , neuroscience , psychiatry , pure mathematics , biology
Preschoolers' selective learning from adult versus peer models was investigated. Extending previous research, children from age 3 were shown to selectively learn simple rule games from adult rather than peer models. Furthermore, this selective learning was not confined to preferentially performing certain acts oneself, but more specifically had a normative dimension to it: children understood the way the adult demonstrated an act not only as the better one, but as the normatively appropriate/correct one. This was indicated in their spontaneous normative interventions (protest, critique, etc.) in response to third party acts deviating from the one demonstrated by the adult model. Various interpretations of these findings are discussed in the broader context of the development of children's social cognition and cultural learning.