Initial investigations into preschoolers' mirror-style versus transposed bodily imitation.
In typical development, imitation plays a key role in sociocognitive competence. The current study investigated a hypothesised developmental trajectory in face-to-face full body imitation style in 91 preschoolers, as well as a relation between imitation style and theory of mind (ToM). Children's response style to 8 lateralized action prompts was recorded as either "mirror" or "transposed." Overall, mirror-style response increased with age, and was predominant for children and an adult comparison group. Imitation style varied depending on the prompt given, with certain actions showing a side bias regardless of prompt viewed. Mirror-style response was correlated with ToM performance after controlling for language ability, but not after controlling for age. Findings are discussed regarding the hypothesised relation between postural synchrony and larger perspective-taking competence.
Psychology Department, Bard College.
Sarah
S
Dunphy-Lelii
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging; D015982:Bias; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D059167:Mirror Neurons; D056345:Theory of Mind; D055815:Young Adult