Class 20 Flashcards
What is a general note for understanding when children “learn X”:
(ex. children learn ____ at age ____”
Children vary a lot in when they develop certain capacities
* Age ranges should be viewed like a measure of central tendency (e.g.,
mean, median) rather than a rule
How to measure recognition of social categories?
(Nonverbal Recognition)
Inferring novelty from eye gaze duration
habituation paradigm
What is the habituation paradigm?
As kids see an object more, they will look at it less
they are habituating to the object
Looking time can assess both:
- Recognition of novelty, difference, or change
- Preference
- Recognition of novelty, difference, or change
- When a pre-existing stimulus has been completely encoded - Preference
- When a pre-existing stimulus hasn’t been completely encode
Explain the study on Novelty of photos?
5-6 month olds
- Habituate to a photo
- See a new photo of someone who is similar or different in gender or age
DV: Looking time at new photo
FOUND:
Child looked more at different gender then original photo
- Or same gender person that doesn’t look differently (ex. / face structure)
(Children are following their own categories, not our social categories)
Explain the study on Preference of photos?
Sample: White newborns AND 3-month
olds
Design: Saw images of people from
different races (NO HABITUATION)
DV: Looking time
FOUND:
Newborns: No race-based difference
in looking time
3-month-olds: More looking time for
White faces
Main Point: Nonverbal preferences based on race develop with experience (infants know more white ppl - parents- so that could be why)
What are the Two rules for when awareness of social categories develops?
- Visibility of social category
- Primacy of social category in everyday life
When does awareness of gender develop?
Awareness of gender develops early (2-3 years)
When does awareness of race develop?
Race/ethnicity comes later (5 years and up)
In the US, which races can white children identify earlier?
o Black people first
o Asian, Latinx, and Native American people later
o However, lots of variation!
(Shows they use skin tone and thats it)
How Do Children vs. Adults Determine Race? (Study)
Sample: Adults & 4-9 year olds in Northeast US (81% White, 11% Black, 8% other)
Design: Participants saw White & Black faces, had to label as “White or European-
American” or “Black or African American”.
* Faces differed in skin color & facial features (physiognomy)
FOUND:
Adults rely on a combination of skin color & facial features; children rely primarily on skin color
Explain One study that looked at the development of race as an immutable or essential feature of a person?
Adults and Children
On each trial, participants saw a photo of one child who was making either a happy or angry expression and then:
- One same-race adult making a different expression
- One other-race adult making the same expression
Participants then had to choose – when the child grows up, which one will they be
FOUND:
- 9-10 year old White children as well as White adults viewed race as more
important than emotion when making predictions
- White 5-6 year olds used race much less compared to White 9-10 year olds, (less likely to use it when ur younger)
- racial minority 5-6 year olds were also more likely to use race. (race is more salient to them)
As children become more aware of race, what do they also notice?
As children become more aware of race as an aspect of one’s social identity, they also become aware of the cultural norm of hesitancy to discuss race directly (“colorblindness”).
children may learn to avoid discuss race even in situations where the situation might demand it.
Explain:
One study investigated how far children would go in avoiding to discuss
race by using a modified version of the game “Guess Who?” and stickers.
Play a game of guess who
- You will win faster if you eliminate ppl based on their race
Two conditions:
- Race relevant
- Race neutral (stickers)
Results:
With race relevant:
- 8-9 year olds asked roughly the same amount of questions in both conditions, whereas 10-11 year olds needed more questions to get to the right answer in the race-relevant condition
- End result is that younger kids did better on the task when race was introduced
(kids learn not to mention race)
With race neutral:
- Older kids did better (cuz they have more thinking capacity)
- So race was the only thing holding them back
Two important factors for development of racial prejudice…
- Are you a member of a majority or minority group?
- How much contact do you have with members of minority groups
What was found in Changes in Explicit Racial Prejudice with a sample of white children?
They rate their own race higher at 5-7 and other races as lower
At age 10 they rate all races as high
(possibly cuz the realize race is sensitive and it’s safer to rate all high)
Implicit Attitudes Across Development show? (IAT study)
White participants in Boston
* 27 kindergartners, 30 fifth graders, 22 adults
IAT:
Child= black or white
- then green smiley face or green frown
Found:
- Stable IAT (each age group has the same average)
- However young children SELF REPORT more prejudice then other age groups (showing that the same lvl of prejudice is still there, ppl are just more hesitant to report it)
What are two reasons why people report less explicit prejudice?
(Reasons for Differences in Implicit & Explicit Attitudes)
- Learn social and cultural norms about race
- Internalize moral lessons about equality & fairness
What are Reasons for Stability in Implicit Attitudes?
- Stability of Attitude
- Stability of Cultural Messages
- Implicit prejudice increases, but adults get better at controlling them (he believes this less)
Explain what they found in Implicit Attitudes Among Children in Cameroon?
implicit and explicit race attitudes (towards Black, White and Chinese people) among children growing up in Cameroon
Age range:
- researchers collected 30 participants from 3-30
Used IAT and scenarios for explicit attitudes
Ex. “This summer your mother will take you to a swimming class. In the class,
you can choose one person to coach you to swim. Which one would you like to choose?”
FOUND:
at 3-6 they prefer own race more (implicitly and explicitly)
** Check class notes on this (slide 34)
Study on contact and attitude change:
Does extended experience with other-race nannies predict racial bias in preschool?
100 hundred 3-6 year olds in Singapore, the researchers compared those with and without “other-race” nanny experience (who in this case were from Indonesia).
FOUND:
1. more contact with other-race nannies was associated with less ingroup racial preference in explicit attitudes.
- Length of contact with an other-race nannies was not associated with the
amount of ingroup racial preference in implicit attitude
awareness of gender is around 2-3
When does preference for one’s own gender start?
by ages 3-4
Gender preferences decline around puberty
o Why?
Probably (heterosexual) attraction
When does Development of Gender Stereotypes start?
Girls as young as six years old were less likely than boys to report that members of
their gender are “really, really smart”.
These beliefs in turn predicted less interest in activities that were believed to be for
“really, really smart” people
(Girls when asked: Which person is “really, really smart”? they will choose a man vs woman)
How did children rate their gender on smartness across ages?
(Development of Gender Stereotypes)
While five-year olds thought their own gender was more likely to be smart, starting
at age six both boy and girl participants thought men were smarter
How did 5-year olds and 6-year old’s gender stereotypes carry over into games for ”really smart people?
5 year olds: Girls wanted to play the smart person game
6 year olds: Girls didn’t want to play the smart person game
What is the ‘Draw A Scientist’ Task?
Kids draw a scientist
See if they draw men or women (usually men)
What does a meta-analysis of ‘Draw A Scientist’ Task find?
gender bias in the ‘Draw a Scientist’ task is decreasing over time, but not substantially
Mostly in girls (boys isn’t changing much)
- Girls draw female scientists more
For girls, what else determines what gender they will draw?
the rate of drawing a male scientist also increases with age.
As they get older, they draw male scientists more
What are “reconciliation skills”?
ability to accept whether others’ judgments (that differ from their own judgments) are valid (i.e., it’s expected that other
people will differ from you in ways that are okay)
Ex. Johnny likes all people with brown eyes and he has brown eyes, and thats okay even though I have blue eyes.
Study on racial Prejudice Among Children with children’s story books:
reading a children’s story that featured a cross-race friendship
The sample was split between Kindergarteners (5-6 years old) and
second-graders (7-8 years old)
(child was Black (outgroup) or White (ingroup))
also measured each child’s “reconciliation skills”
FOUND:
Kindergarteners thought that both Black and White readers would have more positive attitudes towards White people
Second-graders thought that the Black and White readers would prefer their racial ingroup, and this was particularly true for kids who had higher reconciliation skills
Did the story book intervention effect children’s racial attitudes?
The storybook intervention had no effect on children’s own racial attitudes
Why might the book intervention not effect children’s racial attitudes?
One reason for the lack of the success of the storybook manipulation is that children mostly assumed that the person reading the book largely shared their own racial
prejudices.
Young children may not possess the ”cognitive structure to engage with an antibias perspective.”
One hurdle for effective interventions for kids is to understand and appreciate what cognitive skills (e.g., generalizing) are needed for a message to be effective
*** Check notes (slide 48)
