RESUMEN
Adults infer others' communicative intentions, or lack thereof, from various types of information. Young children may be initially limited to attributions based on a small set of ostensive signals. It is unknown when richer pragmatic inferences about communicative intentions emerge in development. We sought novel type of evidence for such inferences in 17-to-19-month-olds. We hypothesized that toddlers recognize adults' smartphone use in face-to-face interactions as incongruous with ostension and would rely on this interpretation when inferring the communicative intention of a model in a new imitation task conducted entirely online, dubbed the Sock Ball Task. In Experiment 1 with a between-subject design, we tested the hypothesis by assessing toddlers' (N = 48) imitation of sub-efficient means and the goal-outcome presented by a model, who interrupted her ostensive demonstration either by using a smartphone or by fiddling with her wristwatch, depending on the condition. We expected toddlers to imitate the sub-efficient means more faithfully in the wristwatch condition than in the smartphone condition. But there was no significant effect of condition on imitation of neither means nor goal. Thus, our hypothesis was not borne out by the results. In Experiment 2, using a within-subject design, we first assessed toddlers' (N = 24) performance in a no-demonstration baseline and then again after a no-disruption ostensive demonstration. In all three conditions with ostensive demonstration (Experiment 1: smartphone, wristwatch; Experiment 2: no-disruption), toddlers produced the demonstrated sub-efficient means significantly above the baseline level. In the no-disruption condition, goals were also imitated significantly above the baseline level. We conclude that the Sock Ball Task is a valid research tool for studying toddler imitation of novel means actions with objects. We end by discussing suggestions for improving the task in future studies.
Asunto(s)
Conducta Imitativa , Intención , Humanos , Femenino , Adulto , Preescolar , Teléfono Inteligente , Comunicación , MotivaciónRESUMEN
This study aimed to systematically investigate 18-month-old infants' imitation of object-related actions compared to motorically similar gestures. An additional goal of the study was to examine the role of action effects on infants' imitation of target actions. One group of infants (n=17) observed object-related actions and gestures leading to salient effects (sounds or visual resp. social effects), and the other group (n=16) watched the same actions without effects. Furthermore, this study examined whether infants show a consistent imitation ability for object-related actions and gestures. First, the present study showed that 18-month-old infants imitated object-related actions more frequently than gestures. Second, the presence of an effect significantly increased the imitation rate of object-related actions; however, this difference was not found for gestures. Third, indications for a general imitation ability were found as results on an individual level showed that object-related action imitation significantly correlated with gesture imitation. Implications of the results for theory and future studies are discussed with a focus on the role of objects and effects in 18-month-old infants' action imitation.
Asunto(s)
Gestos , Conducta Imitativa/fisiología , Desarrollo Infantil/fisiología , Cognición/fisiología , Femenino , Humanos , Lactante , Masculino , Motivación , Apego a Objetos , Conducta SocialRESUMEN
Infants and children do not blindly copy every action they observe during imitation tasks. Research demonstrated that infants are efficient selective imitators. The impact of selective perceptual processes (selective attention) for selective deferred imitation, however, is still poorly described. The current study, therefore, analyzed 12-month-old infants' looking behavior during demonstration of two types of target actions: arbitrary versus functional actions. A fully automated remote eye tracker was used to assess infants' looking behavior during action demonstration. After a 30-min delay, infants' deferred imitation performance was assessed. Next to replicating a memory effect, results demonstrate that infants do imitate significantly more functional actions than arbitrary actions (functionality effect). Eye-tracking data show that whereas infants do not fixate significantly longer on functional actions than on arbitrary actions, amount of fixations and amount of saccades differ between functional and arbitrary actions, indicating different encoding mechanisms. In addition, item-level findings differ from overall findings, indicating that perceptual and conceptual item features influence looking behavior. Looking behavior on both the overall and item levels, however, does not relate to deferred imitation performance. Taken together, the findings demonstrate that, on the one hand, selective imitation is not explainable merely by selective attention processes. On the other hand, notwithstanding this reasoning, attention processes on the item level are important for encoding processes during target action demonstration. Limitations and future studies are discussed.
Asunto(s)
Atención , Movimientos Oculares , Conducta Imitativa , Conducta del Lactante/psicología , Medidas del Movimiento Ocular , Femenino , Fijación Ocular , Humanos , Lactante , MasculinoRESUMEN
Deferred imitation studies are used to assess infants' declarative memory performance. These studies have found that deferred imitation performance improves with age, which is usually attributed to advancing memory capabilities. Imitation studies, however, are also used to assess infants' action understanding. In this second research program it has been observed that infants around the age of one year imitate selectively, i.e., they imitate certain kinds of target actions and omit others. In contrast to this, two-year-olds usually imitate the model's exact actions. 18-month-olds imitate more exactly than one-year-olds, but more selectively than two-year-olds, a fact which makes this age group especially interesting, since the processes underlying selective vs. exact imitation are largely debated. The question, for example, if selective attention to certain kinds of target actions accounts for preferential imitation of these actions in young infants is still open. Additionally, relations between memory capabilities and selective imitation processes, as well as their role in shaping 18-month-olds' neither completely selective, nor completely exact imitation have not been thoroughly investigated yet. The present study, therefore, assessed 18-month-olds' gaze toward two types of actions (functional vs. arbitrary target actions) and the model's face during target action demonstration, as well as infants' deferred imitation performance. Although infants' fixation times to functional target actions were not longer than to arbitrary target actions, they imitated the functional target actions more frequently than the arbitrary ones. This suggests that selective imitation does not rely on selective gaze toward functional target actions during the demonstration phase. In addition, a post hoc analysis of interindividual differences suggested that infants' attention to the model's social-communicative cues might play an important role in exact imitation, meaning the imitation of both functional and arbitrary target actions.
Asunto(s)
Atención/fisiología , Movimientos Oculares/fisiología , Conducta Imitativa/fisiología , Memoria/fisiología , Desempeño Psicomotor/fisiología , Comprensión/fisiología , Señales (Psicología) , Femenino , Humanos , Lactante , MasculinoRESUMEN
The present study investigated the effect of target action functionality (functional vs. arbitrary actions) on 18- and 12-month-old infants' deferred imitation performance. While 18-month-olds' deferred imitation performance was assessed after a short (30 min) and after a long (2 weeks) delay, only the short delay was realized in 12-month-olds. Besides replicating the well established memory effect for both age groups, that is, an improved performance level of target actions in all memory tests as against to a baseline phase, a functionality effect was found, indicating that infants of both age groups imitated significantly more functional than arbitrary target actions. The rate of forgetting of target actions between the first and the second memory assessment was similar for functional and arbitrary actions, demonstrating that the forgetting process is not specific for the two types of target actions. Implications of the findings for both imitation and memory theories as well as for memory test construction are discussed.