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Teaching versus enforcing game rules in preschoolers' peer interactions.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Köymen, B; Schmidt, MFH; Rost, L; Lieven, E; Tomasello, M
Published in: Journal of experimental child psychology
July 2015

Children use normative language in two key contexts: when teaching others and when enforcing social norms. We presented pairs of 3- and 5-year-old peers (N=192) with a sorting game in two experimental conditions (in addition to a third baseline condition). In the teaching condition, one child was knowledgeable, whereas the other child was ignorant and so in need of instruction. In the enforcement condition, children learned conflicting rules so that each child was making mistakes from the other's point of view. When teaching rules to an ignorant partner, both age groups used generic normative language ("Bunnies go here"). When enforcing rules on a rule-breaking partner, 3-year-olds used normative utterances that were not generic and aimed at correcting individual behavior ("No, this goes there"), whereas 5-year-olds again used generic normative language, perhaps because they discerned that instruction was needed in this case as well. Young children normatively correct peers differently depending on their assessment of what their wayward partners need to bring them back into line.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Journal of experimental child psychology

DOI

EISSN

1096-0457

ISSN

0022-0965

Publication Date

July 2015

Volume

135

Start / End Page

93 / 101

Related Subject Headings

  • Social Behavior
  • Peer Group
  • Language
  • Interpersonal Relations
  • Humans
  • Games, Experimental
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Child, Preschool
  • Child Development
  • 5205 Social and personality psychology
 

Citation

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Köymen, B., Schmidt, M. F. H., Rost, L., Lieven, E., & Tomasello, M. (2015). Teaching versus enforcing game rules in preschoolers' peer interactions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 135, 93–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2015.02.005
Köymen, Bahar, Marco F. H. Schmidt, Loreen Rost, Elena Lieven, and Michael Tomasello. “Teaching versus enforcing game rules in preschoolers' peer interactions.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 135 (July 2015): 93–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2015.02.005.
Köymen B, Schmidt MFH, Rost L, Lieven E, Tomasello M. Teaching versus enforcing game rules in preschoolers' peer interactions. Journal of experimental child psychology. 2015 Jul;135:93–101.
Köymen, Bahar, et al. “Teaching versus enforcing game rules in preschoolers' peer interactions.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, vol. 135, July 2015, pp. 93–101. Epmc, doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2015.02.005.
Köymen B, Schmidt MFH, Rost L, Lieven E, Tomasello M. Teaching versus enforcing game rules in preschoolers' peer interactions. Journal of experimental child psychology. 2015 Jul;135:93–101.
Journal cover image

Published In

Journal of experimental child psychology

DOI

EISSN

1096-0457

ISSN

0022-0965

Publication Date

July 2015

Volume

135

Start / End Page

93 / 101

Related Subject Headings

  • Social Behavior
  • Peer Group
  • Language
  • Interpersonal Relations
  • Humans
  • Games, Experimental
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Child, Preschool
  • Child Development
  • 5205 Social and personality psychology