title: The social context of imitation in infancy.
abstract: Infants increasingly generalize deferred imitation across environmental contexts between 6 and 18 months of age. In three experiments with 126 6-, 9-, 12-, 15-, and 18-month-olds, we examined the role of the social context in deferred imitation. One experimenter demonstrated target actions on a hand puppet, and a second experimenter tested imitation 24h later. When the second experimenter was novel, infants did not exhibit deferred imitation at any age; when infants were preexposed to the second experimenter, all of them did. Imitating immediately after the demonstration also facilitated deferred imitation in a novel social context at all ages but 6 months. Infants' pervasive failure to exhibit deferred imitation in a novel social context may reflect evolutionary selection pressures that favored conservative behavior in social animals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Manhattanville College, Purchase, NY 10577, USA.
authors.forename: Amy E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Learmonth
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lamberth
authors.forename: Carolyn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rovee-Collier
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012931:Social Environment