“I Watch, Therefore I Can Do”: The Development of Meta-Imitation During the Preschool Years and the Advantage of Optimism About One’s Imitative Skills

Bjorklund, David F.; Gaultney, Jane F.; Green, Brandi L.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9223-1_4

Cited by 43 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…In a study examining preschool children's abilities to evaluate their imitative skills, 3-and 4-yearoids who were "out of touch" with their imitative abilities (i.e., who overpredicted how well they could imitate an adult model) scored higher on a verbal IQ subtest than 3-and 4-year-old children who were more accurate in their predictions. The relation was reversed for 5-year-oIds (Bjorklund, Gaultney, & Green, 1993). In other words, for young subjects, brighter children were less metacognitively aware than less bright children.…”

Section: Why Do Children Use An Ineffective Strategy?mentioning

confidence: 86%

Training and Extension of a Memory Strategy: Evidence for Utilization Deficiencies in the Acquisition of an Organizational Strategy in High- and Low-IQ Children

Bjorklund¹,

Schneider²,

Cassel³

et al. 1994

Child Development

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Training and Extension of a Memory Strategy: Evidence for Utilization Deficiencies in the Acquisition of an Organizational Strategy in High-and Low-IQ Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1994, 65, 95J-965. 143 9-and 10-year-oId children were classified into high-and Jow-IQ groups and given 4 different sort/recall lists (baseline, training, near [immediate] extension, far [l-week] extension) to assess training and extension of an organizational memory strategy. All children received categorized items of moderate typicality for Phases 1, 3, and 4. For Phase 2, children were assigned to either a training or control group, with half of the children in each group receiving category typical items and the others category atypical items. Levels of recall, sorting, and clustering were greater in Phase 2 for high-IQ children, for the typical lists, and for trained children. Both the high-and low-IQ children trained with typical items continued to show high levels of recall on the near extension phase. No group of subjects maintained high levels of recall after 1 week, although levels of sorting and/or clustering on the extension trials remained high for all groups of subjects except the low-IQ control children. This latter pattern (elevated sorting/clustering with low levels of recall) is an indication of a utilization deficiency, a phase in strategy development when children use a strategy but gain little or no benefit in performance. The results provide evidence for IQ, training, and material effects in the demonstration of a utilization deficiency.

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Section: Why Do Children Use An Ineffective Strategy?mentioning

confidence: 86%

Training and Extension of a Memory Strategy: Evidence for Utilization Deficiencies in the Acquisition of an Organizational Strategy in High- and Low-IQ Children

Bjorklund¹,

Schneider²,

Cassel³

et al. 1994

Child Development

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“…For example, young children's poor metacognition, particularly their poor ability to judge the competency of their own performance, may be adaptive in some contexts. Children who overestimate their own abilities may attempt a wider range of activities and not perceive their less-than-perfect performance as failure (e.g., Bjorklund, Gaultney, & Green, 1993).…”

Section: The Influence Of Natural Selection At Different Times In Ontmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child Development and Evolutionary Psychology

2000

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Evolutionary developmental psychology involves the expression of evolved, epigenetic programs, as described by the developmental systems approach, over the course of ontogeny. There have been different selection pressures on organisms at different times in ontogeny, and some characteristics of infants and children were selected in evolution to serve an adaptive function at that time in their life history rather than to prepare individuals for later adulthood. Examples of such adaptive functions of immaturity are provided from infancy, play, and cognitive development. Most evolved psychological mechanisms are proposed to be domain specific in nature and have been identified for various aspects of children's cognitive and social development, most notably for the acquisition of language and for theory of mind. Differences in the quality and quantity of parental investment affect children's development and influence their subsequent reproductive and childcare strategies. Some sex differences observed in childhood, particularly as expressed during play, are seen as antecedents and preparations for adult sex differences. Because evolved mechanisms were adaptive to ancestral environments, they are not always adaptive for contemporary people, and this mismatch of evolved mechanisms with modern environments is seen in children's maladjustment to some aspects of formal schooling. We argue that an evolutionary perspective can be valuable for developing a better understanding of human ontogeny in contemporary society and that a developmental perspective is important for a better understanding of evolutionary psychology.

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“…There is abundant evidence that preschool and early schoolaged children overestimate their own abilities on a broad range of cognitive tasks (e.g., Bjorklund, Gaultney, & Green, 1993;Schneider, 1991;Stipek & Mac Iver, 1989;Yussen & Levy, 1975), and in general think they are "smarter" than others think they are (e.g., Stipek, 1981Stipek, , 1984Stipek & Hoffman, 1980;Stipek, Roberts, & Sanborn, 1984). Stipek (1981Stipek ( , 1984 reported that young children's assessments of their schoolrelated abilities are quite high.…”

Section: Metacognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bjorklund et al, 1993); a child with better metacognitive skills may realize quickly that the extra effort being put into the task is not resulting in improved performance and thus resort to a nonstrategic approach. In contrast, by being out of touch with the relationship between strategy use and task performance, utilizationally deficient children may persist in using a strategy until it becomes sufficiently efficient to result in improved task performance.…”

Section: Metacognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of immaturity in human development.

Bjorklund¹

1997

Psychological Bulletin

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315

186

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The possibility that infants' and young children's immature behaviors and cognitions are sometimes adaptive is explored and interpreted in terms of evolutionary theory. It is argued that developmental immaturity had an adaptive role in evolution and continues to have an adaptive role in human development. The role of developmental retardation in human evolution is discussed, followed by an examination of the relation between humans' extended childhood and brain plasticity. Behavioral neoteny, as exemplified by play, is examined, as are some potentially adaptive aspects of infants' perception and cognition that limit the amount of information they can process. Aspects of immature cognition during early childhood that may have some contemporaneous adaptive value are also discussed. It is proposed that viewing immaturity as sometimes adaptive to the developing child alters how children and their development are viewed.Nature wants children to be children before they are men. If we deliberately depart from this order, we shall get premature fruits which are neither ripe nor well flavored and which soon decay. We shall have youthful sages and grown up children. Childhood has ways of seeing, thinking, and feeling, peculiar to itself; nothing can be more foolish than to substitute our ways for them.-Jean Jacques RousseauPeople understandably tend to see development as being progressive: from immature and inefficient structures and functions to mature and efficient ones. Early, immature forms are seen as "unfinished" and incomplete versions of the adult; the child is a "work in progress." From this viewpoint, immaturity is a necessary evil, something that people must get through on their way to adulthood, where the "real show of humanity emerges on stage" (L. Thomas, 1993, p. 175). This is not an unreasonable view. A prolonged period of youth is necessary for humans. Humans, more than any other species, must survive by their wits; human communities are more complex and diverse than those of any other species, and this requires that they have not only a flexible intelligence to learn the conventions of their societies but also a long time to learn them. But the species's physical and cognitive development need not progress synchronously. Their prolonged bodily development could in theory be accompanied by rapid cognitive and social development. This would result in a physically dependent child who has the intellectual and social wherewithal to master the ways of the world.Portions of this article were presented at

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“I Watch, Therefore I Can Do”: The Development of Meta-Imitation During the Preschool Years and the Advantage of Optimism About One’s Imitative Skills

Cited by 43 publications

References 25 publications

Training and Extension of a Memory Strategy: Evidence for Utilization Deficiencies in the Acquisition of an Organizational Strategy in High- and Low-IQ Children

Training and Extension of a Memory Strategy: Evidence for Utilization Deficiencies in the Acquisition of an Organizational Strategy in High- and Low-IQ Children

Child Development and Evolutionary Psychology

The role of immaturity in human development.

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