This study investigated differences in attention and learning among Guatemalan Mayan and European American children, ages 5-11 years, who were present but not addressed while their sibling was shown how to construct a novel toy. Each child waited with a distracter toy for her or his turn to make a different toy. Nonaddressed children from Mayan…

This study examined the social organization of Guatemalan Mayan fathers' engagement with school-age children in a group problem-solving task. Twenty-nine groups of Mayan fathers varying in extent of Western schooling and 3 related school-age children (ages 6-12 years) constructed a puzzle together. Groups with fathers with 0 to 3 grades more often…

Examined cultural variation in management of attention by 14- to 20-month olds and caregivers from Guatemalan Mayan community and middle-class community of U.S. European-descent families. Found that Mayan caregivers and toddlers were more likely to attend simultaneously to spontaneously occurring competing events than were U.S. caregivers and…

Examined whether the social organization of problem solving of Guatemalan Mayan indigenous mothers and children varied with the mothers' school experience. Found that mothers with little schooling were involved more in horizontal, multiparty engagements while solving a puzzle with three children, whereas mothers with extensive schooling were…

This study examined the idea that toddlers in some communities are accorded a privileged status in which they are allowed what they want, assumed not yet to "understand" how to cooperate. U.S. middle-class and Guatemalan Mayan mothers and 3- to 5-year-old siblings were observed while the siblings and toddlers (14-20 months) both sought…