title: Social context effects in 2- and 4-year-olds' selective versus faithful imitation.
abstract: This study asked whether children's tendency to imitate selectively (ignore causally unnecessary actions) versus faithfully (overimitate causally unnecessary actions) varies across ages and social contexts. In the first experiment, 2-year-olds and 4-year-olds were randomly assigned to play 1 of 3 prior games with a demonstrator: a mimicry game, an instrumental game, or a noninteractive control game. They then participated in a puzzle-box imitation task in which the demonstrator performed 1 causally necessary and 1 unnecessary action to retrieve an object. Whereas 4-year-olds imitated faithfully across all conditions, 2-year-olds were more likely to imitate faithfully after a mimicry game and to imitate selectively after an instrumental game. Experiment 2 showed no effect of playing a mimicry game with a different experimenter prior to the imitation trials, thus ruling out 2-year-olds' faithful imitation being the result of motor priming or training effects. The results are discussed in terms of children's social affiliation and social-cognitive inferences.
authors: Department of Human Development, Cornell University.
authors: Yue
authors: Y
authors: Yu
authors: Department of Human Development, Cornell University.
authors: Tamar
authors: T
authors: Kushnir
mesh_terms: D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012938:Social Perception