CHILDRENS RECODING IN MEMORY FOR COLLABORATION - A WAY OF LEARNING FROM OTHERS

Children made collages with an adult and were later asked to remember who placed particular pieces on the collage. In three experiments, 4-y ear-olds were more likely to claim they placed pieces actually placed by the adult than the reverse. This bias to claim ''I did it'' was als o observed in response to distractor pieces, but only if those pieces resembled the ones actually used to make the collages (Experiments 1 a nd 2). When children were asked to think about how the adult would pla ce her pieces while waiting for their turns, the bias was not evident. Only when children thought of themselves performing the adult's actio ns did the bias occur (Experiment 3). These results are interpreted as evidence that young children recode the actions of other people as th eir own while thinking about what another person has done or will do. This recoding process is discussed as one mechanism for learning from other people.