Learning in cultural contexts : children's evaluations of learning experiences and cultural expertise

"The current study investigated children's use of information about informants' cultural background and learning method to learn novel facts about an unfamiliar culture. Ninety-six 6- to 9-year-olds heard about an immersed informant (i.e., member of an unfamiliar out-group) and a non-immersed informant (i.e., member of the child's in-group) who each learned about a novel cultural practice differently (i.e., from a person vs. from a book). Children decided which informant executed the cultural practice better (i.e., correctness), which informant they would prefer to learn from (i.e., future learning preference), and how they would want to learn (i.e., learning method preference). Overall, children preferred to endorse immersed informants over non-immersed informants, but a synergistic effect emerged such that the immersed informants who learned from a person were seen as ideal for imparting information in this context. No significant age effects emerged. Relational vocabulary predicted children's performance on the correctness question. These findings are discussed in light of limitations of current selective social learning models and implications for how children learn during middle childhood."--Abstract from author supplied metadata