The development of selective copying: Children’s learning from an expert versus their mother

This study tested the prediction that, with age, children should rely less on familiarity and more on expertise in their selective social learning. Experiment 1 (N=50) found that 5- to 6-year-olds copied the technique their mother used to extract a prize from a novel puzzle box, in preference to both a stranger and an established expert. This bias occurred despite children acknowledging the expert model’s superior capability. Experiment 2 (N=50) demonstrated a shift in 7-to 8-year-olds towards copying the expert. Children aged 9- to 10-years did not copy according to a model bias. The findings of a follow-up study (N=30) confirmed that, instead, they prioritized their own – partially flawed – causal understanding of the puzzle box. Publisher Statement: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Lucas, A, Burdett, E, Burgess, V, Wood, L, Nicola, M, Harris, P & Whiten, A 2017, 'The development of selective copying: Children’s learning from an expert versus their mother' Child Development, vol 88, no. 6, pp. 2026-2042, which has been published in final form at https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12711 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.