Schooling and everyday cognitive development among Kharwar children in India: A natural experiment

The confounding of chronological and educational age and of schooling and socioeconomic status are persistent problems in the study of the cognitive consequences of schooling. The educational system among the Kharwar in India provides a natural experiment to overcome these problems, since it shows neither source of confounding. The sample comprised of 201 schooled and unschooled Kharwar children from 6 to 9 years of age. The test battery contained tests of mathematics and memory with formal and local stimulus content, as well as tests of inductive reasoning, analogies, fluency, picture vocabulary, and numbers. Confirmatory factor analyses supported similar hierarchical factor structures, with general intelligence in the apex, for both unschooled and schooled children. The per annum score increments of chronological age were about twice as large as those of educational age. These findings illustrate the important role of everyday experiences in the development of basic features of cognitive functioning.