A cross-cultural investigation of people's intuitive beliefs about the origins of cognition.

ABSTRACT: Nature vs. nurture is an enduring theme of studies of the mind. Past studies on American children and adults have revealed a preference for thinking that even fundamental cognitive abilities documented in human infants and non-human species are late-emerging and reliant on learning and nurture. However, little is known about the generalizability of this "intuitive empiricist" belief and what factors may help explain it. Adult participants (N = 600) reported their beliefs about the emergence of several fundamental cognitive abilities demonstrated by preverbal infants. Studies 1A-1C showed that adults from both Japan and the US similarly estimated an older age of onset for cognitive abilities in human children as compared to the findings of cognitive science and consistently attribute

SUBMITTER: Meng X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9683109 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature