Collaborative Research: Early understanding of personal and social causes of intentional action: A cross-cultural investigation

在生命的最初几年里，婴儿和儿童通过观察和与周围环境中的人互动来迅速了解社会世界。这些人是孩子们开始学习人类行为和塑造这种行为的社会规范的第一个信息来源。本研究的目的是研究情境因素如何影响儿童解释他人行为意图的方式。本研究以社会认知发展为重点，探讨儿童如何了解他人的目标和愿望，以及儿童如何了解各种社会群体的规则和规范。在这个全球化的时代，个人越来越需要理解多种世界观。这项研究将培养促进积极的社会行为和对美国不同文化群体的规范和价值观的敏感性所需的技能，这反过来又将减少有害的刻板印象和误解。了解不同个体的观点、规范和习俗将帮助孩子更好地理解自己在社会世界中的位置。本研究探讨了儿童获得这种理解的过程背后的机制。该研究还考察了儿童在五岁前如何理解有意行为的文化差异和相似之处。这将通过跟踪三个时间点对有意行为的个人和社会原因的理解的新发展变化来完成，从婴儿期开始，一直持续到学龄前。将比较两个文化群体：欧洲人和华裔美国人。该研究还包括检查婴儿、学步儿童和学龄前儿童如何利用统计学习机制来解释行为。方法论方法包括一个关键的第三方概括任务；这意味着在了解了一个人的行为（和意图）之后，研究人员将确定婴儿和儿童是否能够预测一个不熟悉的人的行为（和意图）。统计学习测量将用于确定不同文化的婴儿和儿童如何使用统计信息来推断个人的目标和愿望。例如，如果一个年幼的孩子在一个行为受共同的文化规范和实践（而不是个人偏好）支配的文化中长大，因此观察到个体之间的一致性，那么随着时间的推移，这个孩子可能会学到，观察到的故意行为通常可以在个体之间推广。相反，如果一个孩子成长的文化中，行为经常是特殊个人品味的表达，因此，观察到个体之间的差异，那么，随着时间的推移，这个孩子可能会学到，有意识的行为不一定是在个体之间通用的。将评估三个年龄组：婴儿（11-13个月）、幼儿（28-32个月）和学龄前儿童（3-5岁）。提出的核心问题包括：儿童对他人意图的预测是儿童所属社会文化群体的功能吗？基于社会文化的推论在什么年龄开始浮出水面？该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In the first few years of life, infants and children rapidly learn about the social world by observing and interacting with the people in their immediate environment. These people are the first source of information as children begin to learn about human behavior and social norms shaping that behavior. The goal of this study is to examine how contextual factors influence the manner in which children interpret the behavioral intentions of others. With a focus on social-cognitive development, this study addresses how children learn about the goals and desires of others and how children learn about the rules and norms of various social groups. In this global age, individuals are increasingly required to understand multiple worldviews. This study will foster skills needed to promote positive social behaviors and sensitivity to the norms and values of different cultural groups in the United States, which, in turn, will reduce harmful stereotyping and misunderstandings.Understanding the perspectives, norms, and conventions of various individuals will help children develop a better understanding of their own place in the social world. This study investigates the mechanisms underlying the process by which children acquire this understanding. The study also examines cultural differences and similarities in how children interpret intentional actions over the first five years of life. This will be accomplished by tracking emerging developmental changes in understandings of personal and social causes of intentional action at three time points starting in infancy and continuing on to the preschool years. Two cultural groups will be compared: European- and Chinese-Americans. The study also involves examining how infants, toddlers, and preschoolers employ statistical learning mechanisms in interpreting behavior. The methodological approach consists of a critical third party generalization task; this means that having learned about the behaviors (and intentions) of one person, investigators will determine whether infants and children are able to predict the behaviors (and intentions) of an unfamiliar person. A statistical learning measure will be used to determine how infants and children across cultures use statistical information to infer goals and desires of individuals. For example, if a young child grows up in a culture in which actions are governed by common cultural norms and practices as opposed to personal preferences, and thus observes consistency across individuals, that child may learn, over time, that observed intentional actions are frequently generalizable across individuals. In contrast, if a young child grows up in a culture in which actions are frequently expressions of idiosyncratic personal tastes, and thus, observes variability across individuals, then, that child may learn over time that intentional actions are not necessarily generalizable across individuals. Three age groups will be assessed: infants (ages 11-13 months), toddlers (ages 28-32 months) and preschoolers (ages 3-5 years). Central questions posed include: Are children's predictions regarding the intentions of others a function of the sociocultural group to which the children belong? At what age do socioculturally-based inferences begin to surface?This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.