Mediated imitation in 6-month-olds: remembering by association.
In two experiments with 72 6-month-olds, we examined whether associating an imitation task with an operant task affects infants' memory for either task. In Experiment 1, infants who imitated target actions that were modeled for 60 s on a hand puppet remembered them for only 1 day. We hypothesized that if infants associated the puppet imitation task with a longer-remembered operant task, then they might remember it longer too. In Experiment 2, infants learned to press a lever to activate a miniature train-a task 6-month-olds remember for 2 weeks-and saw the target actions modeled immediately afterward. These infants successfully imitated for up to 2 weeks, but only if the train memory was retrieved first. A follow-up experiment revealed that the learned association was bidirectional. This is the first demonstration of mediated imitation in 6-month-olds across two very different paradigms and reveals that associations are an important means of protracting memories.
Barr
R
R
Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8020, USA.
Vieira
A
A
Rovee-Collier
C
C
D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011897:Random Allocation; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology