Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-ktprf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-06T12:49:44.315Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Culture is an optometrist: Cultural contexts adjust the prescription of social learning bifocals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2022

Jennifer M. Clegg Open the ORCID record for Jennifer M. Clegg [Opens in a new window] ,
Nicole J. Wen  and
Bruce Rawlings
Jennifer M. Clegg
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA jclegg@txstate.edu https://www.psych.txstate.edu/faculty/psydirectory/Jennifer-Clegg.html
Nicole J. Wen
Affiliation:
Department of Life Sciences, Centre for Culture & Evolution, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, UK nicole.wen@brunel.ac.uk https://www.brunel.ac.uk/people/nicole-wen
Bruce Rawlings
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Durham Cultural Evolution Research Centre, Durham University, Durham, DH1 3LE, UKbruce.rawlings@durham.ac.uk https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/bruce-rawlings/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The “prescription” of humans' social learning bifocals is fine-tuned by cultural norms and, as a result, the readiness with which the instrumental or conventional lenses are used to view behavior differs across cultures. We present evidence for this possibility from cross-cultural work examining children's imitation and innovation.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 45 , 2022 , e255
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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. (2002). Schooling and traditional collaborative social organization of problem solving by Mayan mothers and children. Developmental Psychology, 38, 55–66. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.38.1.55CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clegg, J. M., & Legare, C. H. (2016). A cross-cultural comparison of children's imitative flexibility. Developmental Psychology, 52, 1435–1444. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000131CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clegg, J. M., Wen, N. J., DeBaylo, P. E., Alcott, A., Keltner, E., & Legare, C. H. (2021). Teaching through collaboration: Flexibility and diversity in caregiver–child interaction across cultures. Child Development, 92(1), e56–e75. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13443CrossRefGoogle 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, 428–441. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000275CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greenfield, P. M. (2009). Linking social change and developmental change: Shifting pathways of human development. Developmental Psychology, 45, 401–418. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014726CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harkness, S., & Super, C. M. (2002). Culture and parenting. In Bornstein, M. H. (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Biology and ecology of parenting (Vol. 2, pp. 253–280). Erlbaum. https://doi.org/10.2307/353999Google Scholar
Hewlett, B. S., Fouts, H. N., Boyette, A. H., & Hewlett, B. L. (2011). Social learning among Congo Basin hunter–gatherers. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 366, 1168–1178. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0373CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoehl, S., Keupp, S., Schleihauf, H., McGuigan, N., Buttelmann, D., & Whiten, A. (2019). “Over-imitation”: A review and appraisal of a decade of research. Developmental Review, 51, 90–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2018.12.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lew-Levy, S., Pope, S. M., Haun, D. B., Kline, M. A., & Broesch, T. (2021). Out of the empirical box: A mixed-methods study of tool innovation among Congolese BaYaka forager and Bondongo fisher–farmer children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 211, 105223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105223CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neldner, K., Mushin, I., & Nielsen, M. (2017). Young children's tool innovation across culture: Affordance visibility matters. Cognition, 168, 335–343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2017.07.015CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neldner, K., Redshaw, J., Murphy, S., Tomaselli, K., Davis, J., Dixson, B., & Nielsen, M. (2019). Creation across culture: Children's tool innovation is influenced by cultural and developmental factors. Developmental Psychology, 55(4), 877–889. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000672CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rawlings, B., Dutra, N., Turner, C., & Flynn, E. (2019). Overimitation across development: The influence of individual and contextual factors. In Jones, N. A., Platt, M., Mize, K. D., & Hardin, J. (Eds.), Conducting research in developmental psychology (pp. 26–39). Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawlings, B. S. (2022). After a decade of tool innovation, what comes next?. Child Development Perspectives, 16, 118–124. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12451CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogoff, B., Mistry, J., Göncü, A., Mosier, C., Chavajay, P., & Heath, S. B. (1993). Guided participation in cultural activity by toddlers and caregivers. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 58, 1–179. https://doi.org/10.1037/003620CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wen, N. J., Clegg, J. M., & Legare, C. H. (2019). Smart conformists: Children and adolescents associate conformity with intelligence across cultures. Child Development, 90, 746–758. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12935CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed