Abstract
Studies in Western cultures have observed that both children and adults tend to overimitate, copying causally irrelevant actions in the presence of clear causal information. Investigation of this feature in non-Western groups has found little difference cross-culturally in the frequency or manner with which individuals overimitate. However, each of the non-Western populations studied thus far has a history of close interaction with Western cultures, such that they are now far removed from life in a hunter-gatherer or other small-scale culture. To investigate overimitation in a context of limited Western cultural influences, we conducted a study with the Aka hunter-gatherers and neighboring Ngandu horticulturalists of the Congo Basin rainforest in the southern Central African Republic. Aka children, Ngandu children, and Aka adults were presented with a reward retrieval task similar to those performed in previous studies, involving a demonstrated sequence of causally relevant and irrelevant actions. Aka children were found not to overimitate as expected, instead displaying one of the lowest rates of overimitation seen under similar conditions. Aka children copied fewer irrelevant actions than Aka adults, used a lower proportion of irrelevant actions than Ngandu children and Aka adults, and had less copying fidelity than Aka adults. Measures from Ngandu children were intermediate between the two Aka groups. Of the participants that succeeded in retrieving the reward, 60% of Aka children used emulation rather than imitation, compared to 15% of Ngandu children, 11% of Aka adults, and 0% of Western children of similar age. From these results, we conclude that cross-cultural variation exists in the use of overimitation during childhood. Further study is needed under a more diverse representation of cultural and socioeconomic groups in order to investigate the cognitive underpinnings of overimitation and its possible influences on social learning and the biological and cultural evolution of our species.
Highlights
Human behavior is the result of a complex coevolutionary history written by the network of interactions between our biology, our culture, and our environment [1, 2]
In accordance with the results found for irrelevant actions performed, Aka children were seen to have lower fidelity to the demonstrated sequence than Aka adults
This study has demonstrated that cross-cultural variation exists in the degree to which overimitation is expressed at particular ages in human children
Summary
Human behavior is the result of a complex coevolutionary history written by the network of interactions between our biology, our culture, and our environment [1, 2]. In considering these two non-Western studies and a third incorporating a sample of children from Colombo, the urban, industrialized de facto capital of Sri Lanka [38], each additional cultural group provides valuable data toward the examination of overimitation and other social learning processes and broadens cultural and socioeconomic representation in this line of research With this being said, we agree with the assessment of Whiten [45] that it is inappropriate at present to claim human universality of a trait that has only been observed in such a narrow span of the world’s cultures. Though the Ngandu are largely non-Western and have daily contact with the Aka, the Ngandu receive formal education through schooling (see S1 Appendix) and emphasize respect for elders and those of higher status (see S2 Appendix), which could be expected to generate differences between Aka children and Ngandu children in their approaches to social learning
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
