Cultural Patterns in Attending to Two Events at Once

Abstract

This study examined cultural differences in children's simultaneous attention to 2 events versus quick alternation in which attending to 1 event momentarily interrupted attending to another. Thirty-one 6- to 10-year-old U.S. children of Mexican and European American heritage folded paper figures with 2 other first- to third-grade children and an adult. Mexican heritage children whose mothers averaged 7 grades of school more commonly attended to events simultaneously. European heritage and Mexican heritage children whose mothers had more than 12 grades of school more commonly alternated attention. Differences are interpreted in light of traditional indigenous North and Central American emphasis on learning through observation of ongoing events as well as school practices that emphasize learning by attending to one event at a time.