Caregiver Teaching Practices and Children’s Imitative Fidelity: A Cross-Cultural Study

Presented at the UT Psychology Honors Symposium, the project used caregiver-child knot-tying data to compare teaching behaviors and children’s imitation across the two field sites.

Waorani caregivers relied more on demonstration and directing attention than on verbal prompting and encouragement. Despite these differences, imitation success was comparable across both sites, suggesting that multiple teaching pathways can support effective learning.

What’s Next

The team is continuing to code the remaining field sites and will examine how formal education and other contextual factors relate to variation in caregiver teaching and children's learning.