Publications by authors named "Vanessa Burgess"

In the United Kingdom, COVID vaccinations were rolled out from December 2020. In July 2021 in South East London there were areas of high COVID prevalence and low vaccination uptake. Therefore, a COVID champion service was launched in community pharmacies enabling pharmacy teams to have conversations with patients regarding the vaccination programme and their concerns and signposting as needed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The experimental study of cumulative culture and the innovations essential to it is a young science, with child studies so rare that the scope of cumulative cultural capacities in childhood remains largely unknown. Here we report a new experimental approach to the inherent complexity of these phenomena. Groups of 3-4-year-old children were presented with an elaborate array of challenges affording the potential cumulative development of a variety of techniques to gain increasingly attractive rewards.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Adult humans frequently engage in the reciprocal exchange of resources with other individuals. However, despite the important role that reciprocity plays in maintaining co-operative exchange we know relatively little of when, and how, reciprocity develops. We first asked whether pairs of young children (M = 74 months) would engage in direct reciprocity in a 'prosocial choice test' where a donor could select either a higher, or a lower, value reward (1v 2) for a partner at no cost to themselves (1v 1).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The aim of the current study was to explore the influence that the age and the familiarity of a group majority has on copying fidelity in 4- to 6-year-old children. In Experiment 1, participants (N=120, M=68months) viewed five child models, all of whom were either younger than, the same age as, or older than themselves, open a puzzle box using an inefficient technique (four models) or an efficient technique (one model). In Experiment 2 (N=82, M=71months), the identical task was presented by groups of unfamiliar models.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study tested the prediction that, with age, children should rely less on familiarity and more on expertise in their selective social learning. Experiment 1 (N = 50) found that 5- to 6-year-olds copied the technique their mother used to extract a prize from a novel puzzle box, in preference to both a stranger and an established expert. This bias occurred despite children acknowledging the expert model's superior capability.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF