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Parental presence switches avoidance to attraction learning in children
Nim Tottenham1, Mor Shapiro2, Jessica Flannery3
1Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. nlt7@columbia.edu.
Nature Human Behaviour
|July 24, 2019
Summary
Children learn to approach cues associated with their parent, even negative ones, when the parent is present. This attachment-related learning is crucial for early cognitive-emotional development and survival.
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Cognitive neuroscience
- Behavioral learning
Background:
- Attachment-related learning, where children prefer parent-associated cues, occurs independently of reinforcement.
- This attraction is vital for survival, keeping children near parents for safety during exploration.
- Parenting styles vary, yet this preferential learning persists.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the learning mechanisms behind children's attraction to parental cues.
- To examine how a parent's presence influences associative learning in young children.
Main Methods:
- Preschool-aged children participated in an aversive conditioning procedure.
- Conditioning occurred either with a parent present or when the child was alone.
- Behavioral responses to conditioned stimuli were measured.
Main Results:
- Children showed a behavioral approach to stimuli learned in the parent's presence, despite aversion.
- Children exhibited avoidance of stimuli learned in the parent's absence.
- This effect was more pronounced in children with lower cortisol levels.
Conclusions:
- Early childhood learning systems are adaptable to parental presence.
- Parental presence modifies associative learning, promoting approach behaviors towards parent-associated cues.
- This parental influence on learning is fundamental for cognitive-emotional development.
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