Children's capacity to use cultural focal points in coordination problems

Efrat Goldvicht-Bacon, Gil Diesendruck

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Coordination problems require one to act based on expectations about how partners will act. In Experiment 1, 5-year-olds (n= 57) had to hide a sticker in the box another child from their, or a different, culture was most likely to search in. Boxes were marked with cues presumed to be known by everybody, cultural members, or the child. Experiment 2 assessed 5-year-olds' (n= 57) behavior in a competition scenario. In Experiment 1, children were more likely to hide in the cultural box when playing with a same- than a different-culture partner. In Experiment 2, children's behavior was the opposite. Thus by age 5, children are capable of modulating their actions in coordination problems, according to their partners' presumed knowledge.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)95-103
Number of pages9
JournalCognition
Volume149
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Apr 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

  • Children
  • Common knowledge
  • Cooperation/competition
  • Coordination problem
  • Cultural group membership
  • Focal points

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