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Baumann AE, Goldman EJ, Cobos MGM, Poulin-Dubois D. Do preschoolers trust a competent robot pointer? J Exp Child Psychol 2024; 238:105783. [PMID: 37804786 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105783] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2023] [Revised: 08/09/2023] [Accepted: 09/07/2023] [Indexed: 10/09/2023]
Abstract
How young children learn from different informants has been widely studied. However, most studies investigate how children learn verbally conveyed information. Furthermore, most studies investigate how children learn from humans. This study sought to investigate how 3-year-old children learn from, and come to trust, a competent robot versus an incompetent human when competency is established using a pointing paradigm. During an induction phase, a robot informant pointed at a toy inside a transparent box, whereas a human pointed at an empty box. During the test phase, both agents pointed at opaque boxes. We found that young children asked the robot for help to locate a hidden toy more than the human (ask questions) and correctly identified the robot to be accurate (judgment questions). However, children equally endorsed the locations pointed at by both the robot and the human (endorse questions). This suggests that 3-year-olds are sensitive to the epistemic characteristics of the informant even when its displayed social properties are minimal.
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Zhao M, Fong FTK, Whiten A, Nielsen M. Children's distinct drive to reproduce costly rituals. Child Dev 2023. [PMID: 38108221 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.14061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2023] [Revised: 08/22/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
Costly rituals are ubiquitous and adaptive. Yet, little is known about how children develop to acquire them. The current study examined children's imitation of costly rituals. Ninety-three 4-6 year olds (47 girls, 45% Oceanians, tested in 2022) were shown how to place tokens into a tube to earn stickers, using either a ritualistic or non-ritualistic costly action sequence. Children shown the ritualistic actions imitated faithfully at the expense of gaining stickers; conversely, those shown the non-ritualistic actions ignored them and obtained maximum reward. This highlights how preschool children are adept at and motivated to learn rituals, despite significant material cost. This study provides insights into the early development of cultural learning and the adaptive value of rituals in group cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingxuan Zhao
- Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Frankie T K Fong
- Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Andrew Whiten
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
| | - Mark Nielsen
- Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
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Sommer K, Slaughter V, Wiles J, Nielsen M. Revisiting the video deficit in technology-saturated environments: Successful imitation from people, screens, and social robots. J Exp Child Psychol 2023; 232:105673. [PMID: 37068443 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105673] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2022] [Revised: 03/01/2023] [Accepted: 03/01/2023] [Indexed: 04/19/2023]
Abstract
The "video deficit" is a well-documented effect whereby children learn less well about information delivered via a screen than the same information delivered in person. Research suggests that increasing social contingency may ameliorate this video deficit. The current study instantiated social contingency to screen-based information by embodying the screen within a socially interactive robot presented to urban Australian children with frequent exposure to screen-based communication. We failed to document differences between 22- to 26-month-old children's (N = 80) imitation of screen-based information embedded in a social robot and in-person humans. Furthermore, we did not replicate the video deficit with children imitating at similar levels regardless of the presentation medium. This failure to replicate supports the findings of a recent meta-analysis of video deficit research whereby there appears to be a steady decrease over time in the magnitude of the video deficit effect. We postulate that, should the video deficit effect be truly dwindling in effect size, the video deficit may soon be a historical artifact as children begin perceiving technology as relevant and meaningful in everyday life more and more. This research finds that observational-based learning material can be successfully delivered in person, via a screen, or via a screen embedded in a social robot.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristyn Sommer
- School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Southport, Queensland 4215, Australia.
| | - Virginia Slaughter
- Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia
| | - Janet Wiles
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4067, Australia
| | - Mark Nielsen
- Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia; Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park 2092, South Africa
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Stengelin R, Ball R, Maurits L, Kanngiesser P, Haun DBM. Children over-imitate adults and peers more than puppets. Dev Sci 2023; 26:e13303. [PMID: 35818836 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2021] [Revised: 06/24/2022] [Accepted: 06/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Researchers commonly use puppets in development science. Amongst other things, puppets are employed to reduce social hierarchies between child participants and adult experimenters akin to peer interactions. However, it remains controversial whether children treat puppets like real-world social partners in these settings. This study investigated children's imitation of causally irrelevant actions (i.e., over-imitation) performed by puppet, adult, or child models. Seventy-two German children (AgeRange = 4.6-6.5 years; 36 girls) from urban, socioeconomically diverse backgrounds observed a model retrieving stickers from reward containers. The model performed causally irrelevant actions either in contact with the reward container or not. Children were more likely to over-imitate adults' and peers' actions as compared to puppets' actions. Across models, they copied contact actions more than no-contact actions. While children imitate causally irrelevant actions from puppet models to some extent, their social learning from puppets does not necessarily match their social learning from real-world social agents, such as children or adults. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: We examined children's over-imitation from adult, child, and puppet models to validate puppetry as an approach to simulate non-hierarchical interactions. Children imitated adults and child models at slightly higher rates than puppets. This effect was present regardless of whether the irrelevant actions involved physical contact to the reward container or not. In our study children's social learning from puppets does not match their social learning from human models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roman Stengelin
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Psychology and Social Work, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia
| | - Rabea Ball
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Luke Maurits
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | | | - Daniel B M Haun
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
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Puzio D, Makowska I, Rymarczyk K. Raising the Child-Do Screen Media Help or Hinder? The Quality over Quantity Hypothesis. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2022; 19:9880. [PMID: 36011514 PMCID: PMC9408637 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19169880] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2022] [Revised: 08/07/2022] [Accepted: 08/08/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Screen media are ubiquitous in human life across all age, cultural and socioeconomic groups. The ceaseless and dynamic growth of technological possibilities has given rise to questions regarding their effect on the well-being of children. Research in this area largely consists of cross-sectional studies; experimental and randomized studies are rare, which makes drawing causative conclusions difficult. However, the prevailing approach towards the use of screen media by children has focused on time limitations. The emerging evidence supports a more nuanced perspective. It appears that the older the child, the more important how the screen media are used becomes. Concentrating on the quality of the screen, time has become increasingly relevant in the recent COVID-19 pandemic, which necessitated a transfer of educational and social functioning from real-life to the digital world. With this review, we aimed at gathering current knowledge on the correlations of different screen media use and development outcomes, as well as providing an overview of potential benefits that new technologies may provide to the pediatric population. To summarize, if one cannot evade screen time in children, how can we use it for children's maximum advantage?
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Affiliation(s)
- Diana Puzio
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Medical University of Lodz, 90-419 Lodz, Poland
| | - Iwona Makowska
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Medical University of Lodz, 90-419 Lodz, Poland
| | - Krystyna Rymarczyk
- Department of Biological Psychology, University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, 03-815 Warszawa, Poland
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Revisiting an extant framework: Concerns about culture and task generalization. Behav Brain Sci 2022; 45:e257. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x22001200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
The target article elaborates upon an extant theoretical framework, “Imitation and Innovation: The Dual Engines of Cultural Learning.” We raise three major concerns: (1) There is limited discussion of cross-cultural universality and variation; (2) overgeneralization of overimitation and omission of other social learning types; and (3) selective imitation in infants and toddlers is not discussed.
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Sommer K, Redshaw J, Slaughter V, Wiles J, Nielsen M. The early ontogeny of infants' imitation of on screen humans and robots. Infant Behav Dev 2021; 64:101614. [PMID: 34333263 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2021.101614] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2020] [Revised: 06/17/2021] [Accepted: 07/16/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Traditionally, infants have learned how to interact with objects in their environment through direct observations of adults and peers. In recent decades these models have been available over different media, and this has introduced non-human agents to infants' learning environments. Humanoid robots are increasingly portrayed as social agents in on screen, but the degree to which infants are capable of observational learning from screen-based robots is unknown. The current study thus investigated how well 1- to 3-year-olds (N = 230) could imitate on-screen robots relative to on-screen and live humans. Participants exhibited an imitation deficit for robots that varied with age. Furthermore, the well-known video deficit did not replicate as expected, and was weak and transient relative to past research. Together, the findings documented here suggest that infants are learning from media in ways that differ from past generations, but that this new learning is nuanced when novel technologies are involved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristyn Sommer
- Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, Australia.
| | - Jonathan Redshaw
- Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Australia
| | - Virginia Slaughter
- Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Australia
| | - Janet Wiles
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, Australia
| | - Mark Nielsen
- Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Australia; Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
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