The interaction of social and perceivable causal factors in shaping ‘over-imitation’

Over-imitation has become a well-documented phenomenon. However there is evidence that both social and visible, physically causal factors can influence the occurrence of over-imitation in children. Here we explore the interplay between these two factors, manipulating both task opacity and social information. Four- to 7-year-old children were given either a causally opaque or transparent box, before which they experienced either (1) a condition where they witnessed a taught, knowledgeable person demonstrate an inefficient method and an untaught model demonstrate a more efficient method; or (2) a baseline condition where they witnessed efficient and inefficient methods performed by two untaught models. Results showed that the level of imitation increased with greater task opacity and when children received social information about knowledgeability consequent on teaching, but only for 6- to 7-year-olds. The findings show that children are selectively attuned to both causal and social factors when learning new cultural knowledge

Is the cultural transmission of irrelevant tool actions in adult humans (homo sapiens) best explained as the result of an evolved conformist bias?

BACKGROUND: Recent studies of social learning have revealed that adult humans are "over-imitators" who frequently reproduce a model's causally irrelevant tool actions to the detriment of task efficiency. At present our knowledge of adult over-imitation is limited to the fact that adults do over-imitate, we know very little about the causes of this behavior. The current study aimed to provide novel insights into adult over-imitation by extending a paradigm recently used with human children to explore social aspects of over-imitation. In the child study observers saw two models demonstrate a tool-use task using the same inefficient approach, or two models demonstrate different approaches to the task (one inefficient and one efficient). The manipulation of social influence came in the testing phase where the observer completed the task in the presence of either an inefficient model or an efficient model. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We adapted the paradigm used in the child study to provide the first systematic exploration of factors which may lead to adult over-imitation including: 1) the presence of the model(s) during testing, 2) the presence of a competing efficient task demonstration, 3) the presence of a majority displaying the inefficient approach, and 4) the 'removal' of the experimental context during task completion. We show that the adult participants only over-imitated in conditions where the inefficient strategy was the majority approach witnessed. This tendency towards over-imitation was almost entirely eliminated when the participants interacted with the task when they believed the experiment to be complete. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that adult over-imitation is best explained as a result of an evolved 'conformist bias' argued to be crucial to the transmission of human cultural behavior and one which may be unique in the animal kingdom

Developmental changes in the influence of conventional and instrumental cues on over-imitation in 3- to 6-year-old children

This research was funded under the Undergraduate Research Internship Programme (URIP) organized by the University of St Andrews.Previous studies have shown that children in the preschool period are fastidious imitators who copy models with such high levels of fidelity that task efficiency may be compromised. This over-imitative tendency, and the pervasive nature of it, has led to many explorations and theoretical interpretations of this behavior, including social, causal, and conventional explanations. In support of the conventional account, recent research has shown that children are more likely to over-imitate when the task is framed using conventional verbal cues than when it is framed using instrumental verbal cues. The aim of the current study was to determine whether 3- to 6-year-old children (N = 185, mean age = 60 months) would over-imitate when presented with instrumental and conventional verbal cues, which varied only minimally and were more directly comparable between instrumental and conventional contexts than those used in previous studies. In addition to varying the overall context, we also varied the instrumental prompt used such that the cues provided ranged in the extent to which they provided explicit instruction to omit the irrelevant actions. Counter to our predictions, and the high levels of over-imitation witnessed in previous studies, the older children frequently over-imitated irrespective of the context provided, whereas the youngest children over-imitated selectively, including the irrelevant actions only when the task was presented in a conventional frame. We propose that the age differences found following an instrumental presentation are a result of the youngest children being more open to the motivation of learning the causality of the task, whereas the older children were more strongly motivated to adopt a social convention.PostprintPeer reviewe

Social learning in the real-world : ‘over-imitation’ occurs in both children and adults unaware of participation in an experiment and independently of social interaction

The writing of this paper was supported by the John Templeton Foundation (grant ID 40128).The current study avoided the typical laboratory context to determine instead whether over-imitation—the disposition to copy even visibly, causally unnecessary actions—occurs in a real-world context in which participants are unaware of being in an experiment. We disguised a puzzle-box task as an interactive item available to the public within a science engagement zone of Edinburgh Zoo. As a member of the public approached, a confederate acting as a zoo visitor retrieved a reward from the box using a sequence of actions containing both causally relevant and irrelevant elements. Despite the absence of intentional demonstration, or social pressure to copy, a majority of both child and even adult observers included all causally irrelevant actions in their reproduction. This occurred even though causal irrelevance appeared manifest because of the transparency of the puzzle-box. That over-imitation occurred so readily in a naturalistic context, devoid of social interaction and pressure, suggests that humans are opportunistic social learners throughout the lifespan, copying the actions of other individuals even when these actions are not intentionally demonstrated, and their causal significance is not readily apparent. The disposition to copy comprehensively, even when a mere onlooker, likely provides humans, irrespective of their age, with a powerful mechanism to extract maximal information from the social environment.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The Effect of Dog-Assisted Intervention on Student Well-Being, Mood, and Anxiety

This novel, exploratory study investigated the effect of a short, 20 min, dog-assisted intervention on student well-being, mood, and anxiety. One hundred and thirty-two university students were allocated to either an experimental condition or one of two control conditions. Each participant completed the Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMBS), the State Trait Anxiety Scale (STAI), and the UWIST Mood Adjective Checklist (UMACL) both before, and after, the intervention. The participants in the experimental condition interacted with both the dogs and their handlers, whereas the control groups interacted with either the dog only, or the handler only. The analyses revealed a significant difference across conditions for each measure, with those conditions in which a dog was present leading to significant improvements in mood and well-being, as well as a significant reduction in anxiety. Interestingly, the presence of a handler alongside the dog appeared to have a negative, and specific, effect on participant mood, with greater positive shifts in mood being witnessed when participants interacted with the dog alone, than when interacting with both the dog and the handler. These findings show that even a short 20 min session with a therapy dog can be an effective alternative intervention to improve student well-being, anxiety, and mood

Does kindness always pay? The influence of recipient affection and generosity on young children's allocation decisions in a resource distribution task

The aim of the current study was to determine whether the level of generosity shown by 3- to 8-year-old children (N = 136; M age = 69 months) in a resource distribution task would vary according to whether the recipient had previously displayed kind (affection and generosity) and/or non-kind (non-affection and non-generosity) behavior towards a third party. We first asked whether donor children would show higher levels of generosity towards an affectionate than a non-affectionate recipient (condition 1), and a generous than a non-generous recipient (condition 2), before pitting the two forms of recipient kindness directly against each other (condition 3). Last, we asked whether donations to generous recipients would decrease if the recipient simultaneously displayed non-kind behavior through a lack of affection (condition 4). Here we show that children allocated a greater share of the available resource to generous and affectionate recipients than non-generous and non-affectionate recipients respectively. However, when asked to divide resources between a generous and an affectionate recipient, or two recipients who had each displayed a combination of kind and non-kind behavior, children allocated each recipient an equal share of the resource. These findings suggest that children donate selectively based on previous information regarding recipient generosity and affection, however when both forms of kindness are pitted directly against each other, children strive for equality, suggesting that kindness engenders donor generosity irrespective of the form of kindness previously displayed

The benefits and risks of child-dog attachment and child-dog behaviours for child psychological well-being

The importance of secure human attachments in childhood for healthy psychological development is well-established, yet the well-being implications of child-dog symbiotic relationships are less understood. Children form strong emotional bonds with their pet dogs that meet the prerequisites for an attachment relationship. These bonds can be mutually reinforcing and beneficial and could indicate positive child well-being. However, not all child-dog relationships are positive and here we explore whether harmful and unsafe interactions are associated with poorer emotional and behavioural functioning. The aim of this study was to examine whether the type of child-dog behaviour (positive or negative) mediates the relationship between child-dog attachment and well-being indicators. Data from caregiver reports (N = 117) and child self-reports (N = 77) were collected through an online survey. The results revealed that positive child-dog interactions significantly mediated the relationship between high attachment scores and better child outcomes (higher scores for well-being, positive outlook, happiness, quality of life, higher social satisfaction, and lower loneliness), whereas the reverse was found for negative child-dog interactions, predicting lower attachment scores and worse child outcomes (negative outlook, increased loneliness and social dissatisfaction, lower quality of life). This study has identified important mechanisms through which pet dogs may pose both benefits and risks to children’s psychological well-being. These findings will aid the development and evaluation of interventions that promote positive and safe child-dog interactions and subsequent child and dog psychological health and welfare

Context congruence: How associative learning modulates cultural evolution

The adoption of cultural variants by learners is affected by multiple factors including the prestige of the model and the value and frequency of different variants. However, little is known about what affects onward cultural transmission, or the choice of variants that models produce to pass on to new learners. This study investigated the effects on this choice of congruence between two contexts: the one in which variants are learned and the one in which they are later transmitted on. We hypothesized that when we are placed in a particular context, we will be more likely to produce (and therefore transmit) variants that we learned in that same (congruent) context. In particular, we tested the effect of a social contextual aspect–the relationship between model and learner. Our participants learned two methods to solve a puzzle, a variant from an “expert” (in an expert-to-novice context) and another one from a “peer” (in a peer-to-peer context). They were then asked to transmit one method onward, either to a “novice” (in a new expert-to-novice context) or to another “peer” (in a new peer-to-peer context). Participants were, overall, more likely to transmit the variant learned from an expert, evidencing an effect of by prestige bias. Crucially, in support of our hypothesis, they were also more likely to transmit the variant they had learned in the congruent context. Parameter estimation computer simulations of the experiment revealed that congruence bias was stronger than prestige bias