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

This year's Campbell Lecture, hosted by the Hallie E. Ford Center for Healthy Children and Families, will be presented by Dr. Cristine Legare, a professor of psychology and the founder and director of the Center for Applied Cognitive Science at The University of Texas at Austin.

The Development and Diversity of Cumulative Culture Learning

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 to address how cumulative cultural learning across multiple generations is the product of universal processes of embodied learning. 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.