When astronomy, biology and culture converge:
Children’s conceptions about birthday parties

Rama Klavir

David Leiser

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Abstract

When astronomy, biology and culture converge: Children’s conceptions about birthday parties

In recent years, the domain-specific view of cognition has become the dominant view of cognitive development. Many investigators have come to ascribe to the new-born human infant a preparedness to develop specific cognitive domains, each characterized by a common domain of application, an ontology, and evolutionary relevance that accounts for its evolutionary development. (e.g., Carey & Gelman, 1991; Hirschfeld & Gelman, 1994; Karmiloff-Smith, 1993; Keil, 1990; Rosser, 1994; Spelke et al., 1992; Wellman & Gelman, 1992). Countless studies have investigated how conceptual systems are built by children in the course of their development, starting from Piaget’s groundbreaking studies on “the child’s construction of …” various domains, and pursued and developed by many other investigators since. Thus we now have studies of the development of economics, biology, politics, psychology, physics, and so on (e.g., Bar et al. 1994; Berti & Bombi, 1988; Connell, 1971; Hatano & Inagaki, 1994; Leiser, 1983; Smith, Carey, & Wiser, 1985; Springer & Keil, 1989; Wellman, 1990). However, each of these studies tends to imply a single “mode of construal” (Keil, 1994), a distinct “intelligence frame” (Gardner, 1983). It is of interest to study the development of concepts that span more than one type of intelligence, as far as can be judged.

We found a case in point in a deceptively simple concept: birthday celebration. Understanding this ritual involves coordinating several independent systems, that do not all belong to the same intelligence frame. A birthday presents several facets.

Socially, it is a party, centered on the person whose birthday is being celebrated;

It is also a public occasion, akin to a degree conferral or a wedding, where the social status of a person changes. A mere six-year old before, the child becomes a proud seven-year old on that special day (episodic time.). But a birthday cannot be celebrated at any which time. It is celebrated on the date of birth, which involves a cultural construction of time as cyclical (based on astronomical considerations that are not intrinsically relevant). The change in status is also a consequence of biological maturation, growth and senescence that tie humans to linear time. Parties, without which no proper party took place: without props, guests or presents, would a party still be a birthday party? The accent put on the party may even obscure The relations between these facets are complex. Children grow independently of their birthday party, and do so continuously. They grow in age, and they grow in size and maturity. However, as birth dates occur once every year, age is a step function. The birthday party is the discrete moment that marks the special date, so that the child can claim the higher status. There are requirements for the direction of causality: do you celebrate because you grew up, or conversely? Indeed, if your birthday is marked repeatedly, do you grow up faster? And do you stay the same age, if your birthday is skipped? (This, one suspects, is the ploy that Humpty-Dumpty, the overbearing conventionalist, had in mind.).

To understand birthday as a whole concept, the child has to grasp its several aspects simultaneously, in contrast to a 'successive synthesis' (Biggs & Moor, 1993 ; Das & Varnhargen, 1986) which requires only integrating some of its aspects at any given time. Further, the child needs to grasp visible characters as well as the invisble ones. For instance, understanding that following a certain point in time, one is older, is very different from the conceptual understanding required to realized that a person can be older than another, yet have its birthday earlier on.

We expect children to base themselves on one of the aspects only at any given time, in line with what happens at the pre-operational level: when children cannot integrate length and surface, they center only one. In the case of birthdays, we expect the social aspect to be dominant, as it is the part that is immediately visible. Thus, as they get older, the trend is expected to be change gradually to more encompassing constructions of the concept, an improved understanding of the invisible as well as the patent aspects of birthday, and an increased ability to integrate the biological and the cultural aspects of this concept. To investigate how children understand these concepts, we interviewed them about birthdays, their conditions and consequences.

A total of 107 children were interviewed, ranging in age between 3;6 and 9;4, according to the following distribution: Group no. 1 (age: 4): 24 children ages from 3 years and 6 month to 4 years and 4 month (12 boys and 12 girls). Group no. 2 (age: 5): 28 children ages from 4 years and 6 month to 5 years and 4 month (13 boys and 15 girls). Group no. 3 (age: 7): 27 children ages from 6 years and 6 month to 7 years and 4 month (15 boys and 12 girls). Group no. 4 (age: 9): 28 children ages from 8 years and 6 month to 9 years and 4 month (15 boys and 13 girls).

Since SES is heavily coordinated with neighborhood, we controlled this variable by taking about the same number of children in each age group for each neighborhood. Specifically, the study was run in Beer Sheva, about one third of the children came from a low SES neighborhood and the remaining form a middle-class neighborhood. The children, who took part in this research, were randomly chosen from the class roster in each class or nursery school, and were interviewed after we obtained informed consent from their parents.

The children were interviewed individually in a quiet room, outside their class. The interviews, that lasted about 20 minutes, were taped, transcribed, and coded by two research assistants. The coding was based on categories that were constructed on the basis of a pilot study. The coding criteria proved to be very easy to apply and the interjudge reliability was very high (95%).

The research concentrated on 5 issues: Issue no.1. A spontaneous definition of a birthday party. (See Table 1). Issue no.2. What is the essence of a birthday? (See Table 2). Issue no.3. Mandatory requirements of a birthday party (See Table 3). Issue no.4. Date and year: The connection and the differentiation between the way of determining the date of the birthday (according to month and day of birth) and the way of detthe age (only according to the year of birth). (See Table 4 and 5). Issue no.5. Can a birthday affect growth? (See Table 6 and 7)

Questions were formulated around very short stories, told in a simple language with an expressive tone, mimics and tone variations. We repeated parts and concrete details when necessary, and from time to time checked with the children that they understood the story. Children were interested by our questions and very cooperative. The answers for each one of the questions were arranged in tables and were analyzed by Chi Square tests.

We will present the questions, answer categories and results one after the other.

This direct question “what is a birthday” was intended to determine what aspect(s) of birthdays came spontaneously to mind. Our hypothesis was that the younger the children are, the more they tend to grasp the concept "birthday" according to its overt social characteristics: "a birthday is a celebration, a ceremony, a party etc…” Gradually, they begin to refer to the "growing up” aspect. Only at an older age will they understand the meaning of a "birthday" as integration of both aspects; A birthday is a celebration of the growing up process taking place on the date of birth. Further, since one’s date of birth recurs every year, then celebrating one’s birthday every year on that date also becomes a somewhat fixed ritual serving to indicate the date of birth and the number of years that have passed since the birth.

Children’s answers to this question were categorized as follows:

II. Answers referring only to date of birth or to growing up.

III. Answers referring to both the party and the date of birth / growing older.

As can readily be seen in Table 1, type B answers are rare, though they increase with age. The pattern seen in the table quite clearly consists in a shift from A answers (a special party) to a party that marks and celebrates something external.

We took as our definition of birthday: a party that is / can be given in honor of someone, every year on the day (s)he was born, in order to indicate that specific date and the number of years that have passed since (s)he was born.
The analysis was based on two questions: (1) “Why do we celebrate birthdays?” and (2) A story, followed by a question: “A child’s birthday was celebrated when he was a year old. Then when he was two they celebrated his birthday again and the year after – when he was three - they also celebrated his birthday. But the next year, the year after he was three, his mother got sick and could not give him a birthday party. So he was very sad because he did not know how old he was. In your opinion, how old is he?” The analysis considered the child’s answers to both questions jointly, according to the following criteria (some of which were anticipated in advance and some of which emerged as a result of a preliminary analysis of the children’s answers):

1. Answers referring to birthday as a means to determine one’s age.

Examples - “It is so they would know that you are already moving up an age … when you grow up all the time then on the birthday you know that you are already growing and you move up an age” (group no. 2). - “The birthday party it is to know how old you are … but your parents can also tell” (group no. 4). - “A celebration so that we can know how old we are.” (group no. 4).

2. Answers that conceive of the birthday as a celebration that causes growing.

Examples - “He will only be still … three years old because he didn’t have a birthday party” (group no. 1). - “If next year he won’t have a birthday party? He won’t have a birthday party? He, he … he won’t grow up” (group no. 3).

3. Other misconceptions included saying that a birthday is a ritual that one must go through.

Examples - “Why do we have a birthday party? Because parents want us to … I don’t want all that candy because it is bad for my teeth” (group no. 2).

4. Answers containing the components in our definition: (a celebration/ a party intended to indicate one’s date of birth/ the fact that we grew up.)

Young children (up to age 5) very generally believe that a birthday causes growing (Table 2). As they grow up, they come to see it as a celebration of growing up, and as a means to determine one’s age.

In Israel, birthday parties involve a rich ceremonial. A central prop is a decorated cake, with lit candles corresponding in number to the child’s age, and the key moment consists in the child blowing out the candles. There are various sweets, the child often wears a crown made out of flowers, balloons and party decorations, a clown or a magician, family members are present and guests bring little presents, and there are special songs and party games. The third issue, then, is which -- if any -- of these elements are conceived as essential for a ‘birthday’ to count as a birthday.

The question was based on the following story: Mom, Dad, Haimke and his brothers and sisters sat around the dinner table and had a conversation. Do you know what about? They were discussing Haimke’s birthday. Haimke said that he can hardly wait for his birthday and that he is so happy that in only two weeks his birthday will be celebrated. Dad was slightly embarrassed when he said: “Haimke, you know that this year we really don’t have that much money. Also, our house is very crowded. So I thought that this year on your birthday we will give up some of the things that we usually do on a birthday.” – “What? asked Haimke in alarm. You won’t give me a birthday party?” – “Yes! We will give you a birthday party but we will have to give up some things in order to save money”, said mother. “Let’s think, for example, if we give up the magician, is that so terrible?” – Haimke thought for a moment and then an argument started between him and his brothers. Some said: “It doesn’t matter, it will still be considered a birthday”. Some said: “No magician? That’s no birthday”… They argued and argued, but could not decided whether or not it is considered a birthday without a magician. What do you think? –And how about no crown of flowers? –And no sparklers? – And no presents? – And no candy? – And no cake? – And no candles? – And no friends or guests? – And no balloons?” In the end, Dad suggested that Haimke will decide what are the most important things, without which the ‘birthday’ will not be considered a ‘birthday’. And those things will not be omitted. “Now you help Haimke decide: Do you think that there are things that must be on Haimke’s birthday in order for him to consider it a birthday, and therefore he must not give them up? What are they?” The analysis was based on the following components:

1. All the customs are essential. Each part of the ritual is equally important: its absence means no birthday. These answers are clear-cut: it is all or nothing.
   Example Interviewer: “ […] and no balloons?”– Answer: “it doesn’t count” – Interviewer: -“and without a crown?”- Answer: “it doesn’t count”…(group no. 1).
2. Some customs are essential, and some can be given up if there is no other choice. Without the essential customs a birthday cannot be considered a birthday. Examples - “A cake is very important [why?] Because it is. And presents also. Also … candy … A Magician? Not important, you can have a clown instead … And ifyou have to give up the clown as well as the magician? It doesn’t matter, it’s still a birthday. But without a cake it’s only half a birthday” (group no. 1).
3. Answers that refer to the pleasure and joy that some customs generate: If a birthday is in essence a joyful celebration, the absence of some of the customs that make it fun cause for an important aspect of the birthday to be lacking.

Example - “Candy are not necessary. Balloons aren’t either. Decorations, no, it’s like balloons. Candles and cake - it depends - because the child has to be happy and choose the cake and put out the candles; and the people, more friends and at least parents and brothers and sisters, they have to be there, otherwise it is a sad birthday and you can’t have that” (group no. 4).

4. No component or custom is necessary for a birthday to be considered a birthday. Example - “Nothing is necessary. Even without anything it still is a birthday.” (group no. 4).

Table 3 shows how children move from an insistence on each and every custom as essential to the birthday, to a position that none is really required.

Birthdays are celebrated according to the date (month and day of birth), while age is determined according to the year of birth. We investigated children’s understanding of this complexity by two separate questions (Questions 4 and 5), each presenting a pseudo-paradox.

Question 4 tested their reaction to the fact that two people may celebrate their birthday on the same day, even though their age is different. The question was presented in the form of the following story: “Do you know my neighbor? Ron’s grandpa? Who is older – Ron or his Grandpa? You know, Ron told me a peculiar story: He said that tomorrow both he and his Grandpa have a birthday. I don’t know whether to believe him. How can it be that such an old Grandpa and such a little boy have a birthday together? On the same day? They are not the same age, are they?”
Answers were classified according to 3 categories:

1. -“I don’t know”. Such answers either indicate a failure to understand the question or the perception of a paradox.
2. The situation is impossible. These answers show that there is no full comprehension of the concept ‘date’ including the distinction between its components (‘day’, ‘month’, ‘year’) in regard to their relation to the concept “birthday”.

Question 5 confronted the children with a situation in which a person who is older than another person (and so was born a few years before the other person) celebrated his birthday after the other person?

The question was presented as follows: You know, my son (or my brother) is much younger than I am – he is in the third grade and I am this big. So isn’t it true that if I am big it’s a sign that I was born before him? Much before him, right. So how is it possible that my birthday is always after his? His birthday is always at the beginning of the year, and mine is at the very very end of the year, I have a birthday long after he does!

Answers were classified according to the same three categories:

1. “I don’t know”.
2. Answers regarding the situation as a paradox, sometimes suggesting a way to resolve the paradox and sometimes not. Understanding of the concept ‘date’ is still not complete.

Examples - “No! It’s not true. It has to be for you first and then for your son, because he is younger” (group no. 1) – “So how can it be? How can it be? Because this man (probably my son) saw a star and made a wish. Because when a star falls you make a wish. So he made a wish to have his birthday before you. So that was his wish“ (group no. 2)..

3. Perception of the situation as possible and not paradoxical.

Again, we see (Tables 4 and 5) how young children cannot resolve these paradoxes, and by age nine, have no difficulty with them anymore.

The question that interested us was whether a birthday can serve as a means to manipulate age (or even size). The manipulation can involve an increase or a decrease, and we tested these directions separately. With Question 6, we returned to the boy who never had a birthday party and does not know how old he is (see question 2 above), and asked the following: "Do you remember the boy whose mother became sick and could not give him a birthday party? And he was very sad because he did not know how old he was? You know what? His mother suggested that because he is a nice boy she would make up for it. The following year she will give him a birthday party not only once like everybody else has but rather again and again until he is older than everybody else. Do you understand? One birthday for age 5 like his friends and then quickly another birthday for age 6 and then a few days later one for age 7. Two birthdays – so that he can grow and catch up with his friends. What do you think? Is that a good idea?”

We coded the answers in 2 categories:

1. It is possible. Here we entered answers showing misconception of the role of birthday as an event that can actually increase age.

Examples - “Yes! He will be bigger (or older). He will be bigger than everybody … it is a good idea” (group no. 1). – “It’s not good to have so many birthdays so close together, because he will be disappointed; because he will get to his age suddenly and the kids will start envying him, and all sorts of trouble can start … he can lose them (group no. 4).

2. It is impossible to increase age by means of a birthday.

Question 7 was similar, but involved a decrease in age/size following a birthday. “Yesterday I saw in the paper a picture of a very very old man. So old he was all wrinkled, with glasses and a bird. He even needed a cane to help him walk. And his back was all bent …Do you know why they put his picture in the paper? – Because he wanted to let every one in his family know that from now on he does not want to grow anymore. He told his family, through the paper, that being 80 years old is enough for him, and instead of growing older and older, he would like now to grow younger and younger. So, on his coming birthday he wants to have a 79^th birthday party (or 70 depending on the age of the child questioned), and the year after that he wants to have a 78^th birthday party (or 60), and the year after that he wants a 77^th birthday party (or 50), and the year after that he wants to have a 76^th birthday party (or 40) and so on, and he wants to continue like that until he becomes young. So what do you think of his request –Good, isn’t it? Well, is it a good idea?”
Answers were classified according to three categories:

1. It is possible. The child thinks that a birthday is an event that can change age and can be used to “reduce” age.

Examples - “If he wants to, it’s possible. He will be younger” (group no. 1). - “Yes, it’s good that way, because he won’t be old anymore” (group no. 3).

2. Differentiation between size and age. A birthday is an event capable of bringing change. Size changes regardless of the birthday party, but age is perceivedas arbitrary or conventional, and so can be changed by means of a birthday.

Example - “It’s really a good idea. But if at his age he becomes smaller, his body will definitely not become smaller, and he will also have wrinkles” (group no. 3).

3. It is impossible to “decrease” age by means of a birthday party.

Table 6 and 7 lead to the following conclusions. For younger children, inasmuch as birthday celebration effects an age change, it can be manipulated to change age. Older children abandon this conception. Overall, fewer children accept a decrease than an increase.

The results of this study reveal the development of understanding the birthday as a concept that spans more than one type of cognition. The picture that emerges from bringing together all these questions is quite clear. Three main trends characterize their development.

First, younger children (4 and 5 years old) tend to rely almost only on the explicit, concrete and sensible characteristics of the birthday. The ability to grasp the overt as well as covert aspects of the concept of birthday is develops gradually (see Watters & English, 1995). Amongst four years olds, no one can do it. Amongst nine years olds, almost all of the children can. In issue no. 1 for example, it was seen that four years olds define birthday on the basis of its explicit aspect of celebration only. Five years olds do so too, by and large. Seven years olds do so rarely, while most nine years olds extract the implicit aspect of the birthday as a cultural habit, combining it with the social explicit aspect of celebration into a more comprehensive synthesized concept.

Another trend that emerged from the results is the gradual shift from associative relations between different aspects of the concept (celebration and growing up, for example) toward a more conceptually-based understanding of these relations (Markman, 1999), which enables a more elaborate reasoning . To illustrate, consider the answers to issue no. 2 (What is the essence of a birthday?) . Many of the four years olds believe that birthday parties cause growing: an associative reasoning between two aspects that usually go together. By age nine, they come to see these parties as a celebration of growing up, and as a means to determine one’s age: a more knowledgeable and qualitative reasoning. Inasmuch as the ritual enactment of the birthday is responsible for this transformation, young children insist that each and every custom is essential to the birthday (Issue no. 3), while for older ones, none of the props and customs are essential for growing (though some of them are required for the party to be fun).

Young children are impressively consistent: since birthday rituals actually effect an age change, they can also be manipulated to change age at will (as emerged from issue no. 5). To older children, this is impossible. However, have gone this far, even the younger children sense a difficulty, for they are also aware that biological aging is irreversible. While many agreed that age can be increased by multiplying birthday celebrations, they were less willing to accept that this stratagem would be effective for reversing aging, and several suggested compromises that well express the two positions between which they were torn.

The last trend is the gradual shift from successive toward simultaneous synthesis (Biggs & Moor, 1993 ; Das & Varnhargen, 1986; Watters & English, 1995). The former refers to concentrating on one aspect at a time, toward integrating several aspects together into an integrated cohesive unit. As we just saw regarding Issue 5, even those four and five years olds who knew that aging is irreversible couldn't draw the appropriate conclusion, that celebrating birthday backwards cannot make one younger, because they were unable to synthesize the aspects simultaneously. The same is true also in issue no.1, where most of the nine years olds, many of the seven years old, and none of the four years olds could define a birthday as a synthesis between the celebration, the day of birth, and growing up. And again, the same is true regarding Issue 4. The structure of age, dates, and their relations to birthday are inexplicable to the younger ones. For them, time is linear only, as is growth, and the rankings of age and the order of birthdays have to coincide. Birthday parties evolve from a performative social act to a social occasion to mark growth and rejoice in it. The early conception is social and self-contained: a group of friends and relative convene to declare that the child is now an accredited member of the class of n years old. The mature conception is also socially based (people meet to rejoice together). However, that conception is now integrated with external conceptual subsystems: the irreversible and independent unfolding of biological growth, and the cyclical aspect of time. This enables the child to transcend the performative and magical approach to the birthday ritual.

The concept of birthday is not as simple as it seems. It is a complex, multidimensional integrative concept. Four years olds who rely on a narrow basis of knowledge (their own, limited experience), who are unable to integrate several aspects and lack the ability to extract the covert aspects to be integrated, construe a very partial concept of birthday. Of the various conceptualisations possible, they elaborate one based on the overt and explicit aspects. Even when they possess or sense another relevant aspect, they cannot construct the interrelations between these aspects, especially when they span more than one type of cognition. The required synthesis therefore eludes them. By the age of nine, most children have overcome these limitations and acquired the birthday concept fully.

We feel the final word belongs to Carroll: “I never ask advice about growing,” Alice said indignantly.

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