Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-kl59c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-24T09:56:38.690Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Children begin with the same start-up software, but their software updates are cultural

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2017

Jennifer M. Clegg  and
Kathleen H. Corriveau
Jennifer M. Clegg
Affiliation:
Boston University School of Education, Boston, MA 02215. jclegg@bu.edu kcorriv@bu.edu www.jennifermclegg.com www.bu.edu/learninglab
Kathleen H. Corriveau
Affiliation:
Boston University School of Education, Boston, MA 02215. jclegg@bu.edu kcorriv@bu.edu www.jennifermclegg.com www.bu.edu/learninglab
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We propose that early in ontogeny, children's core cognitive abilities are shaped by culturally dependent “software updates.” The role of sociocultural inputs in the development of children's learning is largely missing from Lake et al.'s discussion of the development of human-like artificial intelligence, but its inclusion would help move research even closer to machines that can learn and think like humans.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e260
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Chavajay, P. & Rogoff, B. (1999) Cultural variation in management of attention by children and their caregivers. Developmental Psychology 35(4):1079.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clegg, J. M., Wen, N. J. & Legare, C. H. (2017) Is non-conformity WEIRD? Cultural variation in adults' beliefs about children's competency and conformity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 146(3):428–41.Google Scholar
Correa-Chávez, M. & Rogoff, B. (2009) Children's attention to interactions directed to others: Guatemalan Mayan and European American patterns. Developmental Psychology 45(3):630.Google Scholar
Corriveau, K. H. & Harris, P. L. (2010) Preschoolers (sometimes) defer to the majority when making simple perceptual judgments. Developmental Psychology 26:437–45.Google Scholar
Corriveau, K. H., Kim, E., Song, G. & Harris, P. L. (2013) Young children's deference to a consensus varies by culture and judgment setting. Journal of Cognition and Culture 13(3–4):367–81.Google Scholar
Davoodi, T., Corriveau, K. H. & Harris, P. L. (2016) Distinguishing between realistic and fantastical figures in Iran. Developmental Psychology 52(2):221.Google Scholar
Dennett, D. C. (1987) The intentional stance. MIT Press.Google Scholar
DiYanni, C. J., Corriveau, K. H., Kurkul, K., Nasrini, J. & Nini, D. (2015) The role of consensus and culture in children's imitation of questionable actions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 137:99–110.Google Scholar
Harkness, S., Blom, M., Oliva, A., Moscardino, U., Zylicz, P. O., Bermudez, M. R. & Super, C. M. (2007) Teachers' ethnotheories of the ‘ideal student’ in five western cultures. Comparative Education 43(1):113–35.Google Scholar
Harris, P. L. (2012) Trusting what you're told: How children learn from others. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Henrich, J. (2015) The secret of our success: How culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species, and making us smarter. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Henrich, J., Heine, S. J. & Norenzayan, A. (2010) The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33(2–3):61–83.Google Scholar
Kline, M. A. (2015) How to learn about teaching: An evolutionary framework for the study of teaching behavior in humans and other animals. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2015;38:e31.Google Scholar
Legare, C. H. & Harris, P. L. (2016) The ontogeny of cultural learning. Child Development 87(3):633–42.Google Scholar
Liu, D., Wellman, H. M., Tardif, T., & Sabbagh, M. A. (2008). Theory of mind development in Chinese children: A meta-analysis of false-belief understanding across cultures and languages. Developmental Psychology 44(2):523–31. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.44.2.523.Google Scholar
Mejía-Arauz, R., Rogoff, B. & Paradise, R. (2005) Cultural variation in children's observation during a demonstration. International Journal of Behavioral Development 29(4):282–91.Google Scholar
Meltzoff, A. N. & Moore, M. K. (1995) Infants' understanding of people and things: From body imitation to folk psychology. In: The body and the self, ed. Bermúdez, J. L., Marcel, A. & Eilan, N., pp. 43–70. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Mesoudi, A., Chang, L., Murray, K. & Lu, H. J. (2015) Higher frequency of social learning in China than in the West shows cultural variation in the dynamics of cultural evolution. Proceeding of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences 282(1798):20142209.Google Scholar
Rogoff, B. (2003) The cultural nature of human development. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shahaeian, A., Peterson, C. C., Slaughter, V. & Wellman, H. M. (2011) Culture and the sequence of steps in theory of mind development. Developmental Psychology 47(5):1239–47.Google Scholar
Spelke, E. S. (1990) Principles of object perception. Cognitive Science 14(1):29–56.Google Scholar
Super, C. M. & Harkness, S. (2002) Culture structures the environment for development. Human Development 45(4):270–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar