Multiple Imitation Mechanisms in Children

Autor/inn/en	Subiaul, Francys; Anderson, Sarah; Brandt, Janina; Elkins, Jenny
Titel	Multiple Imitation Mechanisms in Children
Quelle	In: Developmental Psychology, 48 (2012) 4, S.1165-1179 (15 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0012-1649
DOI	10.1037/a0026646
Schlagwörter	Imitation; Preschool Children; Observational Learning; Recall (Psychology); Cognitive Processes; Novelty (Stimulus Dimension); Familiarity; Spatial Ability; Psychomotor Skills; District of Columbia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Pre-school age; Preschool age; Child; Children; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Vorschulalter; Kind; Kinder; Vorschulkind; Vorschulkinder; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Imitationslernen; Abberufung; Cognitive process; Kognitiver Prozess; Räumliches Vorstellungsvermögen; Psychomotorische Aktivität
Abstract	Four studies using a computerized paradigm investigated whether children's imitation performance is content-specific and to what extent dependent on other cognitive processes such as trial-and-error learning, recall, and observational learning. Experiment 1 showed that 3-year-olds could successfully imitate what we call novel cognitive rules (e.g., first [right arrow] second [right arrow] third), which involved responding to 3 different pictures whose spatial configuration varied randomly from trial to trial. However, these same children failed to imitate what we call novel motor-spatial rules (e.g., up [right arrow] down [right arrow] right), which involved responding to 3 identical pictures that remained in a fixed spatial configuration from trial to trial. Experiment 2 showed that this dissociation was not due to a general difficulty in encoding motor-spatial content, as children successfully recalled, following a 30-s delay, a new motor-spatial sequence that had been learned by trial and error. Experiment 3 replicated these results and further demonstrated that 3-year-olds can infer a novel motor-spatial sequence following observation of a partially correct and partially incorrect response--a dissociation between imitation and observational learning (or emulation learning). Finally, Experiment 4 presented 3-year-olds with "familiar" motor-spatial sequences that involved making a linear response (e.g., left [right arrow] middle [right arrow] right) as well as "novel" motor-spatial sequences (e.g., right [right arrow] up [right arrow] down) used in Experiments 1-3 that were nonlinear and always involved a change in direction. Children had no difficulty imitating familiar motor-spatial sequences but again failed to imitate novel motor-spatial sequences. These results suggest that there may be multiple, dissociable imitation learning mechanisms that are content-specific. More importantly, the development of these imitation systems appears to be independent of the operations of other cognitive systems, including trial and error learning, recall, and observational learning. (Contains 2 tables, 3 figures and 3 footnotes.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10