Image

Cristine H. Legare, PhD

Professor of Psychology | Director of the Center for Applied Cognitive Science
The University of Texas at Austin

Abstract

Human culture is unique among animal species in its complexity, diversity, and variability. Children develop within highly diverse cultural ecologies that contain knowledge systems, beliefs, practices, artifacts, and technologies that are transmitted and modified over generations.

In her talk, Dr. Legare will use a cross-cultural perspective and draw from work in developmental and cognitive science, anthropology, and comparative education to address how cumulative cultural learning across multiple generations is the product of universal processes of embodied learning, which vary in kind and frequency based on the cultural ecology that the child inhabits.

She will present evidence that these universal learning processes are shaped by values and socialization practices associated with educational institutions and systems of knowledge. The processes by which children acquire and transmit the culture of their communities provide unique insight into the cognitive foundations of cumulative cultural transmission—the cornerstone of human cultural diversity.

Speaker bio

Cristine Legare is a Professor of Psychology and the Founder and Director of the Center for Applied Cognitive Science at The University of Texas at Austin. An author of more than 100 articles, her research examines how the human mind enables us to learn, create, and transmit culture. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the McDonnell Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and the John Templeton Foundation, among other agencies.

Dr. Legare is the recipient of the APS Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions (2015) and the APA Boyd McCandless Award (2016) for her research on the evolution and ontogeny of cognition and culture.

Learn more about Dr. Legare.

The Cynthia and Duncan Campbell Lecture on Childhood Relationships, Risk and Resilience is presented annually and made possible by Cindy and Duncan Campbell.