A research group led by Assistant Professor Xianwei Meng of the Graduate School of Osaka University, in collaboration with the Center for Cognitive Learning at Rutgers University and Doshisha University, conducted a survey of adults in Japan and the United States regarding their understanding of the onset of cognitive abilities such as color discrimination in children. First of all, it was clarified for the first time in the world that adults tend to estimate the emergence of various cognitive abilities in children later than they actually are, and to regard this as the result of learning.
Infants are known to have several cognitive abilities from early in life.Color recognition starts around 4 months of age, depth recognition starts around 2 days after birth, and face-like and non-face-like recognition starts a few days after birth.This cognitive ability is called "nuclear knowledge," which is considered important in adapting to living environments and is the core ability when acquiring new knowledge and skills.
A 2019 US study found that adults believe that nuclear knowledge emerges later than it should.This time, the research group conducted a survey of a total of 600 adults in Japan and the United States in order to explore cultural differences and factors related to this perception.
As a result, the responses of adults in Japan and the United States were similar, and they recognized that children's nuclear knowledge appears after the average age of 2 years old, and approximately 77% of the responses regarded the emergence of nuclear knowledge as a result of learning.In addition, adults who hold an evolutionary view and believe that learning can change intelligence are more likely to see the emergence of nuclear knowledge as a result of learning.
There has been a long-standing debate about whether it is 'nurture or nurture', but in modern society, adults value the 'nurture' aspect more than the actual development. It has now become clear that there is a discrepancy inIt is expected that awareness of this gap will be useful in participating in research, child-rearing, school education, etc. based on a scientific view of children.
Paper information:[Frontiers in Psychology] A cross-cultural investigation of people's intuitive beliefs about the origins of cognition
