Treating another's actions as one's own: children's memory of and learning from joint activity

Children often overestimate their contribution to collaborative activities. Across 2 studies, the authors investigated whether this memory bias supports internalization of the actions of others in the context of joint exchanges. After taking turns with (high collaborative condition; Studies 1 and 2)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Developmental psychology Vol. 43; no. 4; p. 1003
Main Authors: Sommerville, Jessica A, Hammond, Amy J
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States 01.07.2007
Subjects:
Child Development
Child, Preschool
Cooperative Behavior
Female
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Learning
Male
Memory
Mental Recall
Social Behavior
Videotape Recording
ISSN:0012-1649
Online Access:Get more information
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Summary:Children often overestimate their contribution to collaborative activities. Across 2 studies, the authors investigated whether this memory bias supports internalization of the actions of others in the context of joint exchanges. After taking turns with (high collaborative condition; Studies 1 and 2) or working independently of (low collaborative condition; Study 2) an adult experimenter to create a series of novel toys, children's agent memory and reconstruction ability were assessed. Children in the high collaborative condition but not the low collaborative condition systematically overclaimed the actions of their social partner, more frequently reporting having completed steps performed by the experimenter than vice versa. This "I did it" bias was related to learning performance: high collaborative children outperformed low collaborative children both during an immediate reconstruction task and 4 months later, and the strength of the bias predicted children's independent toy-building accuracy. It is argued that the "I did it" bias may emerge as part of a general process of learning from others and is supported by a common framework for representing self-actions and other actions.
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ISSN:0012-1649
DOI:10.1037/0012-1649.43.4.1003