First impressions matter: Warm-up play impacts toddlers’ cooperative ability with a same-aged peer

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: PS 14 Topic - Social Cognition

Abstract

Social interaction quality (i.e., whether, or not, cooperative partners engage in affiliative or antagonistic behaviours) impacts two- and three-year-olds’ ability to successfully coordinate their actions with the actions of a same-aged peer to attain a shared goal (Endedijk et al. 2015). However, the extent to which the initial social interaction quality between two unfamiliar, two-year-old peers during a warm-up interaction period impacts the social quality or their ability to cooperate in a subsequent collaborative task remains unclear.

The present study tests whether the social interaction quality observed during a warm-up interaction between unfamiliar two-year-old dyads (N = 95 dyads, male-dyads = 43) would predict the interaction quality and cooperative ability between the same dyad in a subsequent cooperative task (adapted from Brownell et al.’s (2006) cooperative task; see Figure 1). Each member of the dyad received binary scores which indicated the presence (score of 1) or absence (score of 0) of the following behaviours towards their social partner during the warm-up and cooperative task: 1) affiliation (i.e., behaviours that support the ongoing interaction such as sharing or positive response), 2) antagonism (i.e., behaviours that hinder the ongoing interaction such as competing or aggression). To assess cooperative ability, each member of the dyad received a binary score which indicated the presence (score of 1) or absence (score of 0) of the following behaviours during the cooperative task: 1) initiating (i.e., behaviours that highlighted the cooperative motivation aspect of cooperative ability such as when a child pushed their handle down first in a cooperative action sequence), responding (i.e., behaviours that highlighted the coordination aspect of cooperative ability such as when a child observed and reacted to their social partners handle press by pushing their handle down), success (i.e., a measure indicating whether or not the dyad attained the shared-goal of making the robot dance at least once).

Results from Generalised Estimating Equations (GEE) revealed that children displayed antagonistic behaviour during the first 90 seconds of the warm-up were more likely to show affiliative behaviour and antagonistic behaviour during the cooperative task. Children who displayed affiliative behaviour during the first 90 seconds of the warm-up were more likely to engage in initiating behaviours, but not cooperative success. The results suggest that children who initially exhibit behaviours that support cooperative exchanges may be more motivated to cooperate. Behaviours which undermine social interaction quality may not impact cooperative ability but are prone to spillover across tasks. See Table 1 for estimated parameters.

The present research highlights the importance of the previous experiences and social interaction quality between two social partners, particularly at an age when verbal ability is limited, and coordination is not reliable. Further, these findings suggest that first impressions impact subsequent effects on prosocial behaviour and advise considerations to be made when designing future studies.

Authors

• Nichole Breeland, University of Auckland
  Presenting Author

• Annette M. E. Henderson, University of Auckland
  Non-Presenting Author