DiYanni Cara J, Corriveau Kathleen H, Kurkul Katelyn, Nasrini Jad, Nini Deniela
Department of Psychology, Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648, USA.
School of Education, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2015 Sep;137:99-110. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2015.04.004. Epub 2015 May 15.
A significant body of work has demonstrated children's imitative abilities when learning novel actions. Although some research has examined the role of cultural background in children's imitation of inefficient actions, to our knowledge no research has explored how culture and conformity interact when engaging in imitation. In Study 1, 87 Caucasian American and Chinese American preschoolers were presented with either one model or three models performing an inefficient action. Whereas there were no cultural differences in imitation in the Single Model condition, Chinese Americans were significantly more likely to copy the model's preference for an inefficient tool in the Consensus condition. Children's tool choice was associated with their justification for their choice as well as their memory for the model's action. Study 2 explored the impact of immigration status on the cultural differences in children's tool choice by including 16 first-generation Caucasian American children. When comparing the findings with the rates from Study 1, both groups of Caucasian American preschoolers imitated at rates significantly lower than the Chinese American preschoolers. We suggest that the tool choices of Caucasian American children relate to a tendency to engage in a perceptually driven mode of learning, whereas the choices of the Chinese American children reflect a greater likelihood to use a socially driven mode.
大量研究表明，儿童在学习新动作时具有模仿能力。虽然一些研究考察了文化背景在儿童模仿低效动作中的作用，但据我们所知，尚无研究探讨文化与从众心理在模仿行为中是如何相互作用的。在研究1中，87名美籍白人和华裔美国学龄前儿童被展示了一个或三个模型执行低效动作的场景。在单一模型条件下，模仿行为不存在文化差异，但在共识条件下，华裔美国儿童更有可能模仿模型对低效工具的偏好。儿童的工具选择与其对选择的理由以及对模型动作的记忆有关。研究2通过纳入16名第一代美籍白人儿童，探讨了移民身份对儿童工具选择文化差异的影响。将研究结果与研究1的比率进行比较时，两组美籍白人学龄前儿童的模仿率均显著低于华裔美国学龄前儿童。我们认为，美籍白人儿童的工具选择倾向于一种由感知驱动的学习模式，而华裔美国儿童的选择则更有可能反映出使用社会驱动模式的倾向。
