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

合作研究：对有意行为的个人和社会原因的早期理解：跨文化调查

• 批准号: 1823563
• 负责人: Fei Xu
• 金额: $ 23.83万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-07-15 至 2021-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1823563&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Early; understanding; personal

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.

在生命的最初几年，婴儿和儿童通过观察周围环境中的人并与之互动，迅速了解社会世界。当孩子们开始学习人类行为和塑造人类行为的社会规范时，这些人是第一个信息来源。这项研究的目的是考察背景因素如何影响儿童解释他人行为意图的方式。这项研究着眼于社会认知发展，探讨儿童如何学习他人的目标和愿望，以及儿童如何学习不同社会群体的规则和规范。在这个全球化的时代，人们越来越需要理解多元的世界观。这项研究将培养促进积极的社会行为所需的技能，以及对美国不同文化群体的规范和价值观的敏感性，这反过来将减少有害的刻板印象和误解。了解不同个人的观点、规范和惯例将有助于儿童更好地了解他们在社会世界中的位置。这项研究调查了儿童获得这种理解的潜在机制。这项研究还考察了儿童在生命的头五年如何解释故意行为的文化差异和相似之处。这将通过跟踪在三个时间点上对故意行为的个人和社会原因的理解的新的发展变化来实现，从婴儿期到学龄前几年。将对两个文化群体进行比较：欧洲裔和华裔美国人。这项研究还包括调查婴儿、幼儿和学龄前儿童如何使用统计学习机制来解释行为。方法论方法包括关键的第三方推广任务；这意味着，在了解了一个人的行为(和意图)后，调查人员将确定婴儿和儿童是否能够预测陌生人的行为(和意图)。将使用统计学习措施来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成长在这样一种文化中，在这种文化中，行为受到共同的文化规范和做法的支配，而不是个人偏好，从而观察到个人之间的一致性，随着时间的推移，该儿童可能会了解到，观察到的故意行为往往可以在个人之间推广。相反，如果一个年幼的孩子成长在这样一种文化中，在这种文化中，行为往往是特殊的个人品味的表达，因此观察到个体之间的差异，那么随着时间的推移，孩子可能会了解到，故意行为不一定可以在个人之间推广。将评估三个年龄段：婴儿(11-13个月)、蹒跚学步的儿童(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的社会文化群体的一种功能吗？基于社会文化的推论在什么年龄开始浮出水面？这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。