Diversity in Learning Contexts Shapes the Early Development of Relational Reasoning

• In Event: 2-071 - Diverse Perspectives: Pushing Developmental Research Beyond WEIRD Samples

Integrative Statement

Background: Children’s ability to acquire and apply relational same-different concepts is often cited as a defining feature of human cognition, providing the foundation for abstract thought (Penn, Holyoak, & Povinelli, 2008). Yet, young learners often struggle to ignore surface properties to attend to structural similarity. This has led to the widespread belief that children only gradually come to interpret similarity in terms of abstract relations (i.e., the “relational shift,” Gentner, 1988). However, an emerging alternative account (e.g., Walker, Bridgers, & Gopnik, 2016) suggests that this shift may reflect a learned bias, rather than a typical waypoint along a universal developmental trajectory. If so, consistent differences in the focus on objects or relations in a child’s learning environment could influence the type of hypotheses that are privileged and applied. In particular, English-speaking children in the U.S. may be subject to cultural and linguistic influences that bias their reasoning toward objects, to the detriment of relations.

Method: In Experiments 1 and 2, we compared relational reasoning in children in the U.S. and China. Three-year-olds (Exp 1) and 18-30-month olds (Exp 2) in both cultures were given a causal version of a relational match-to-sample task (Figure 1). Children observed as four pairs of blocks were placed on a toy that played music when “activated.” Two of the pairs contained identical blocks (“same”) and the other two pairs contained mismatched blocks (“different”). For children in the same condition, the toy activated only when same pairs were placed on top, while those in the different condition observed the opposite pattern. Children were then shown novel pairs of same or different blocks and asked to choose which would activate the toy. In Experiment 3, we assessed baseline differences in bias toward relational or object-based hypotheses using an ambiguous formulation of the same task, in which it was unclear whether a particular object or the relationship between objects produced the effect (Figure 2).

Results & Discussion: While 3-year-olds in the U.S. performed at chance (same condition: 53%, p = .871; different condition: 40%; p = .256), replicating previous results (Walker et al., 2016), those in China succeeded in activating the toys (same condition: 72%, p = .009; different condition: 74%, p = .005). Experiment 2 established distinct developmental trajectories, showing a linear trajectory between 18 and 30 months in China and a U-shaped trajectory in the U.S. Finally, in Experiment 3, Chinese children exhibited a bias toward relational solutions (68% relational matches, p = .006), while children in the U.S. preferred object-based solutions (64% object matches, p = .044), with a significant difference between groups (p < .001). Together, these findings establish cross-cultural differences in relational focus that predict the trajectory of relational reasoning, challenging the generality of the relational shift and suggesting a critical role for experience. Findings contribute to our understanding of how regularities in the environment may set the developing system on different learning trajectories, and provide evidence that the development of abstract reasoning may be more malleable and context-sensitive than previously thought.

Authors

• Caren Walker, University of California, San Diego
  Presenting Author

• Alexandra Carstensen, Radboud University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jing Zhang, Zhejiang Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gail D Heyman, University of California, San Diego
  Non-Presenting Author

• Genyue Fu, Hangzhou Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kang Lee, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author