Bilateral (Hong Kong): An experimental study of East-West differences in social learning

双边（香港）：东西方社会学习差异的实验研究

基本信息

批准号：
ES/J016772/1
负责人：
Alex Mesoudi
金额：
$ 10.27万
依托单位：
Durham University
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2013
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2013 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FJ016772%2F1
关键词：
Bilateral Hong Kong experimental study

项目摘要

We often think of copying in negative terms: students copying others on tests are penalised for cheating, and derogatory terms like "sheep" are used to describe people who follow popular trends. In evolutionary terms, however, copying others can be seen as an adaptive thing to do. Copying other people's solutions to problems means that we don't have to go through a long and costly process of trial-and-error to find the solution on our own.Given the benefits of social learning, it has been surprising that recent psychology experiments conducted in the UK and US by the UK applicant (Dr Mesoudi) have found lower-than-expected rates of copying. When solving a complex task - designing a "virtual arrowhead" using a computer program - people tend not to copy other people's designs and use individual trial-and-error, even when they would do better if they had copied others who have been successful.A potential solution to this puzzle has been proposed by the Hong Kong applicant (Prof Chang). He has argued that over the last few centuries Western societies have experienced more environmental change, including climatic change, socio-political change and agricultural change, than Asian societies. In evolutionary terms, rapid environmental change favours individual learning, because other people's behaviour may be out-of-date and unreliable, whereas environmental stability favours social learning, because other people's behaviour is still relevant and useful. Consequently, Asian societies have adapted historically to environmental stability by engaging more in social learning, and Western countries have adapted to rapid environmental change by engaging more in individual learning. According to this hypothesis, the lower-than-expected rates of social learning seen in experiments with UK and US participants may be because those participants come from Western countries where individual learning is predominant. In this bilateral grant, we will test Chang's hypothesis by directly comparing the learning style of Western (UK) and Asian (Hong Kong Chinese) participants on the learning task developed by Mesoudi. We predict that Chinese participants will more readily engage in social learning than British participants, explaining the latter's lower-than-expected rates of social learning in terms of broader patterns of cultural adaptation. This will be the first ever East-West comparison of learning style using a task designed to measure the adaptiveness of social learning.Further experiments will probe the origin and flexibility of any East-West differences observed in the initial comparison. We will (i) simulate different levels of environmental change in the lab task (where "environment" means "what arrowhead design gives a high payoff") to see whether participants can override their culturally-determined learning style and respond adaptively to immediate environmental conditions; (ii) compare urban Hong Kong residents with rural mainland Chinese residents, to see if a history of Western influence in Hong Kong has influenced learning style; (iii) test Chinese immigrants in the UK to see if they shift learning style to that of the local Western society; and (iv) see if learning style correlates with an already established dimension of cultural variation, individualism-collectivism.In identifying and explaining East-West differences in learning styles, this project can improve cross-cultural interactions in various real-life contexts. In the classroom, for example, Asian students are encouraged to learn by rote from teachers and texts, while Western students are encouraged to learn through independent discovery, which seems to reflect the learning styles we are exploring. Chinese students in the UK often find it difficult to adjust to the different UK style of education. By better understanding such differences, we can improve the integration of immigrants and cross-cultural communication across East-West boundaries.

我们经常考虑以负面的方式复制：在测试中复制其他人的学生因作弊而受到惩罚，而诸如“绵羊”之类的贬义术语用于描述遵循流行趋势的人。但是，从进化的角度来看，复制他人可以看作是适应性的事情。将他人的解决方案复制到问题上意味着我们不必经历漫长而昂贵的反复试验的过程来自行找到解决方案。赋予了社会学习的好处，令人惊讶的是，英国申请人（Mesoudi Dr）最近在英国和我们进行的最近的心理学实验发现了较低的繁殖率。在解决复杂的任务 - 使用计算机程序设计“虚拟箭头”时 - 人们倾向于不复制他人的设计并使用个人反复试验，即使他们复制了成功的其他人，他们会做得更好。他认为，在过去的几个世纪中，西方社会经历了更多的环境变化，包括气候变化，社会政治变化和农业变化，而不是亚洲社会。从进化的角度来看，快速的环境变化有利于个人学习，因为其他人的行为可能是过时的和不可靠的，而环境稳定性则有利于社会学习，因为其他人的行为仍然是相关且有用的。因此，亚洲社会通过更多地参与社会学习，从历史上适应了环境稳定，西方国家通过更多地参与个人学习来适应快速的环境变化。根据这一假设，在与英国和美国参与者的实验中看到的社会学习率低于预期的，可能是因为这些参与者来自个人学习的西方国家。在这项双边赠款中，我们将通过直接比较Mesoudi开发的学习任务的西方（英国）和亚洲（英国）和亚洲（英国）的学习方式来检验Chang的假设。我们预测，与英国参与者相比，中国参与者将更容易参与社会学习，从而从更广泛的文化适应方式方面解释了后者的社会学习率低于预期的率。这将是使用旨在衡量社会学习适应性的任务对学习风格进行的首个东西方比较。Further实验将探讨在初始比较中观察到的任何东西方差异的起源和灵活性。我们将（i）模拟实验室任务中不同级别的环境变化（“环境”的意思是“箭头设计给出了高收益”），以查看参与者是否可以覆盖其文化确定的学习风格并适应直接的环境条件；（ii）将香港城市居民与中国大陆居民进行比较，以了解西方在香港的影响力是否影响了学习风格；（iii）在英国测试中国移民，以查看他们是否将学习风格转移到当地西方社会的方式上；（iv）看看学习风格是否与已经建立的文化变异，个人主义 - 倾向主义的维度相关。在识别和解释学习风格的东西方差异时，该项目可以改善各种现实生活中的跨文化互动。例如，在教室里，鼓励亚洲学生从老师和文本中学习，而鼓励西方学生通过独立发现学习，这似乎反映了我们正在探索的学习方式。英国的中国学生常常发现很难适应不同的英国教育风格。通过更好地理解这种差异，我们可以改善移民和跨越东西界的跨文化交流的整合。