Poster #7 - Developmental Origins of Social Cognitive Offloading

• In Event: Poster Session 08

Abstract

Humans often transfer internal cognitive processing demands into the external world in a process known as “cognitive offloading” (Risko & Gilbert, 2016). During the middle childhood years, children become increasingly selective in their offloading decisions, choosing to solve problems unaided when their internal capacities suffice but turning to external solutions when most beneficial (Armitage et al., 2020). However, existing research on the development of cognitive offloading has exclusively focused on physical externalisations of cognitive processes, such as using memory aids to assist remembering in high- versus low-demand situations (Bulley et al., 2020). It remains unknown when and how children begin to selectively offload cognitive demand onto other cognitive agents, such that they will preferentially seek help from social others who have previously demonstrated expertise in a task-relevant domain. Across two studies, we therefore investigated when children become selective in the cognitive helpers they choose.

In Study 1, 4- to 7-year-old children (N = 64) played a memory game in which they had to remember the locations of either 1 target (easy) or 5 targets (hard) hidden among an array of 25 cups. Next, they were shown a video involving two social characters, where one exhibited strong memory skills (task-relevant) but weak motor skills (task-irrelevant), and the other exhibited the opposite skill pattern. Finally, children were again tasked with playing the cup game, but this time they could choose one of the social characters to help them remember the targets (Figure 1). Across ages, children were significantly more likely to ask for help on hard trials (56.3%) than easy trials (35.9%), t(63) = 2.42, p = .018, d = .30. Children were also significantly more likely to choose the strong-memory character (60.9%) than the weak-memory character (39.1%) to help them, t(63) = 2.29, p = .026, d = .29, but this effect only applied in the second of two trial blocks (Figure 2a). Children therefore appear unable to generalise prior knowledge about social others’ relevant expertise to inform offloading behaviours and may only be able infer such expertise through direct observation of their performance in the task itself.

Study 2 was a conceptual replication involving an older sample of 6- to 11-year-olds (N = 74). In addition to completing the cup task with social helpers, children also completed a preliminary phase in which they could use physical tokens to alleviate memory demands. Children across ages were significantly more likely to choose the strong-memory character (70.3%) than the weak-memory character (29.7%) to help them during both trial blocks, t(73) = 6.38, p < .001, d = .74 (Figure 2B), and they were also significantly more likely to offload using physical tokens in hard trials than easy trials, t(73) = 14.00, p < .001, d = 1.63. However, these two forms of selective cognitive offloading did not significantly correlate with each other, r(72) = .09, p = .469. These results therefore raise the possibility that children’s decisions to selectively offload using physical objects and social agents draw upon distinct, unrelated cognitive processes.

Authors

• Kristy Louise Armitage, University of Queensland
  Presenting Author

• Chantal Li, University of Queensland

• Shu Lin Ng, University of Queensland

• Jonathan Redshaw, University of Queensland