title: Imitation, Collaboration, and Their Interaction Among Western and Indigenous Australian Preschool Children.
abstract: This study explored how overimitation and collaboration interact in 3- to 6-year-old children in Westernized (N = 48 in Experiment 1; N = 26 in Experiment 2) and Indigenous Australian communities (N = 26 in Experiment 2). Whether working in pairs or on their own rates of overimitation did not differ. However, when the causal functions of modeled actions were unclear, the Indigenous Australian children collaborated at enhanced rates compared to the Western children. When the causal role of witnessed actions was identifiable, collaboration rates were correlated with production of causally unnecessary actions, but in the Indigenous Australian children only. This study highlights how children employ imitation and collaboration when acquiring new skills and how the latter can be influenced by task structure and cultural background.
authors.affiliation: University of Queensland.|University of Johannesburg.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.affiliation: University of Queensland.
authors.forename: Ilana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mushin
authors.affiliation: University of Johannesburg.|University of KwaZulu-Natal.
authors.forename: Keyan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tomaselli
authors.affiliation: University of St Andrews.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Whiten
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia / Q000208:ethnology; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D008297:Male