Journal
DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 52, Issue 9, Pages 1435-1444Publisher
AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC
DOI: 10.1037/dev0000131
Keywords
cross-cultural comparisons; convention; imitation; social learning
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
- Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) [REFRES-060-25-0085]
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Recent research with Western populations has demonstrated that children use imitation flexibly to engage in both instrumental and conventional learning. Evidence for children's imitative flexibility in non-Western populations is limited, however, and has only assessed imitation of instrumental tasks. This study (N = 142, 6- to 8-year-olds) demonstrates both cultural continuity and cultural variation in imitative flexibility. Children engage in higher imitative fidelity for conventional tasks than for instrumental tasks in both an industrialized, Western culture (United States), and a subsistence-based, non-Western culture (Vanuatu). Children in Vanuatu engage in higher imitative fidelity of instrumental tasks than in the United States, a potential consequence of cultural variation in child socialization for conformity.
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