title: The role of social interaction and pedagogical cues for eliciting and reducing overimitation in preschoolers.
abstract: The tendency to imitate causally irrelevant actions is termed overimitation. Here we investigated (a) whether communication of a model performing irrelevant actions is necessary to elicit overimitation in preschoolers and (b) whether communication of another model performing an efficient action modulates the subsequent reduction of overimitation. In the study, 5-year-olds imitated irrelevant actions both when they were modeled by a communicative and pedagogical experimenter and when they were modeled by a non-communicative and non-pedagogical experimenter. However, children stopped using the previously learned irrelevant actions only when they were subsequently shown the more efficient way to achieve the goal by a pedagogical experimenter. Thus, communication leads preschoolers to adapt their imitative behavior but does not seem to affect overimitation in the first place. Results are discussed with regard to the importance of communication for the transmission of cultural knowledge during development.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Heidelberg University, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany. Electronic address: stefanie.hoehl@psychologie.uni-heidelberg.de.
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hoehl
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Heidelberg University, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany; Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zettersten
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Heidelberg University, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Hanna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schleihauf
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Heidelberg University, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grätz
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Heidelberg University, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pauen
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D066107:Social Skills; D013663:Teaching
keywords: Communication; Imitation; Natural pedagogy; Norm learning; Overimitation; Preschoolers; Social interaction; Social learning