The Development of Selective Copying: Children’s Learning from an Expert versus their Mother

Amanda J. Lucas; Emily R. R. Burdett; Vanessa Burgess; Lara A. Wood; Nicola McGuigan; Paul L. Harris; Andrew Whiten

doi:10.1111/cdev.12711

The Development of Selective Copying: Children’s Learning from an Expert versus their Mother

Amanda J. Lucas, Emily R. R. Burdett, Vanessa Burgess, Lara A. Wood, Nicola McGuigan, Paul L. Harris, Andrew Whiten

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Abstract

This study tested the prediction that, with age, children should rely less on familiarity and more on expertise in their selective social learning. Experiment 1 (N=50) found that 5- to 6-year-olds copied the technique their mother used to extract a prize from a novel puzzle box, in preference to both a stranger and an established expert. This bias occurred despite children acknowledging the expert model’s superior capability. Experiment 2 (N=50) demonstrated a shift in 7-to 8-year-olds towards copying the expert. Children aged 9- to 10-years did not copy according to a model bias. The findings of a follow-up study (N=30) confirmed that, instead, they prioritized their own – partially flawed – causal understanding of the puzzle box.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	2026-2042
Number of pages	17
Journal	Child Development
Volume	88
Issue number	6
Early online date	29 Dec 2016
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12711
Publication status	Published - Nov 2017

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This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: ucas, A. J., Burdett, E. R. R., Burgess, V., Wood, L. A., McGuigan, N., Harris, P. L. and Whiten, A. (2016), The Development of Selective Copying: Children's Learning From an Expert Versus Their Mother. Child Dev, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12711. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.
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title = "The Development of Selective Copying: Children{\textquoteright}s Learning from an Expert versus their Mother",

abstract = "This study tested the prediction that, with age, children should rely less on familiarity and more on expertise in their selective social learning. Experiment 1 (N=50) found that 5- to 6-year-olds copied the technique their mother used to extract a prize from a novel puzzle box, in preference to both a stranger and an established expert. This bias occurred despite children acknowledging the expert model{\textquoteright}s superior capability. Experiment 2 (N=50) demonstrated a shift in 7-to 8-year-olds towards copying the expert. Children aged 9- to 10-years did not copy according to a model bias. The findings of a follow-up study (N=30) confirmed that, instead, they prioritized their own – partially flawed – causal understanding of the puzzle box.",

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The Development of Selective Copying: Children’s Learning from an Expert versus their Mother

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