Learning the norm of internality: NetNorm, a connectionist model

The objective of the present article is to show that connectionist simulations can be used to model some of the socio-cognitive processes underlying the learning of the norm of internality. For our simulations, we developed a connectionist model which we called NetNorm (based on Dual-Network formalism). This model is capable of simulating the implicit learning of this social norm through a simple process of situation/reinforcement association. In a second simulation, we simulated a non-linear learning in order to reproduce the triple inflexion in the internality learning curve that has been observed for children entering high school. The results support those previously reported in the literature. Moreover, our simulations could be used to develop new experimental predictions.