Poster #89 - Does the observation of conventional object use limit exploration in preschool children?

• In Event: Poster Session 06

Abstract

Children make special kinds of inferences when they believe that someone is intending to teach them information. For example, Bonawitz et al. (2011) found that children restricted their use of a toy to what was demonstrated to them and failed to explore an object further following child-directed instruction as opposed to observation. Theorists have argued that this is because children reason that information that has been directly provided to them is relevant and complete, requiring no further exploration of the problem.
An open question is how children might make similar inferences outside of episodes of explicit teaching. This study investigates one such cue that children could make use of—the conventional use of objects. From a young age, children utilize convention to guide their interaction with objects. For example, by 10 months, infants are more likely to imitate conventional, as compared with unfamiliar actions (Killen & Uzgiris, 1981), and children are more likely to imitate actions that they have seen multiple people perform in a conventional way as compared to actions they have seen a single person perform an action in an idiosyncratic way (Herrmann et al., 2013). This project will extend this research by asking how social convention might inform children’s decisions about what an object can or should be used for in the absence of explicit directed teaching.
Three- to 6-year-old children (planned n=144 children, collected=101 children) attending a museum in the United States were assigned to one of three conditions (Pedagogical, Non-Pedagogical Single, Non-Pedagogical Conventional). In all conditions an experimenter directed children’s attention to 3 short videos where a person modeled one function on a novel object. In the Pedagogical Condition the person did so while using language to indicate intentional teaching (e.g., “I’m going to show you how my toy works”). In the Single condition, the person operated the novel toy without looking at the child or using language to indicate teaching the child about the object (e.g., “I’m going to make my toy work”), while in the Conventional condition 3 people operated the toy in the same manner without directly teaching the child. Following this training, children had the opportunity to interact with the toy.
As per (Bonawitz et al., 2011), videos will be coded for the percentage of time children play with the demonstrated function (out of their total play time) as well as the number of additional (non-demonstrated) functions that children discovered on the toy. For each dependent variable a multivariate general linear model will be run with Condition (Pedagogical, Single, Conventional), and Age group (3-4 years or 4-5 years) as fixed factors. Post hoc t-tests will be used to compare condition contrasts within each age group. Prior research (e.g., Bonawitz et al., 2011) suggests that children will be more likely to restrict play to the demonstrated function in the Pedagogical condition as compared to the Non-Pedagogical Single condition. This project will ask whether children similarly restrict play when they see multiple people use objects in the same conventional way.

Authors

• Ricky Haneda, Pacific Lutheran University
  Presenting Author

• Matthew Lewis, Pacific Lutheran University

• Maddie Shaw

• Lauren H. Howard, Franklin & Marshall College

• Laura Ann Shneidman, PACIFIC LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY