title: Selective Cooperation in Early Childhood - How to Choose Models and Partners.
abstract: Cooperation is essential for human society, and children engage in cooperation from early on. It is unclear, however, how children select their partners for cooperation. We know that children choose selectively whom to learn from (e.g. preferring reliable over unreliable models) on a rational basis. The present study investigated whether children (and adults) also choose their cooperative partners selectively and what model characteristics they regard as important for cooperative partners and for informants about novel words. Three- and four-year-old children (N = 64) and adults (N = 14) saw contrasting pairs of models differing either in physical strength or in accuracy (in labeling known objects). Participants then performed different tasks (cooperative problem solving and word learning) requiring the choice of a partner or informant. Both children and adults chose their cooperative partners selectively. Moreover they showed the same pattern of selective model choice, regarding a wide range of model characteristics as important for cooperation (preferring both the strong and the accurate model for a strength-requiring cooperation tasks), but only prior knowledge as important for word learning (preferring the knowledgeable but not the strong model for word learning tasks). Young children's selective model choice thus reveals an early rational competence: They infer characteristics from past behavior and flexibly consider what characteristics are relevant for certain tasks.
authors: Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Waldweg 26, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany.|Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Kellnerweg 4, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors: Jonas
authors: J
authors: Hermes
authors: Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Waldweg 26, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany.|Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Kellnerweg 4, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors: Tanya
authors: T
authors: Behne
authors: Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Waldweg 26, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany.
authors: Kristin
authors: K
authors: Studte
authors: Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Waldweg 26, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany.
authors: Anna-Maria
authors: AM
authors: Zeyen
authors: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of Leipzig, Liebigstr. 20a, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors: Maria
authors: M
authors: Gräfenhain
authors: Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Waldweg 26, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany.|Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Kellnerweg 4, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors: Hannes
authors: H
authors: Rakoczy
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult