Infants show stability of goal-directed imitation

Sakkalou, Elena; Ellis-Davies, Katherine; Fowler, Nia; Hilbrink, Elma; Gattis, Merideth

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2012.09.005

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The dominant explanation for selective imitation is that infants and children are sensitive to the goal‐directed nature of human actions and selectively reproduce the goals of others (Bekkering, Wohlschläger & Gattis, ; Gattis, Bekkering & Wohlschläger, ). The results of several studies support the claim that infants and children copy goals and intentions and omit mistakes and other aspects of observed behavior (Bekkering et al ., ; Carpenter et al ., ; Carpenter, Call & Tomasello, ; Gardiner, Greif & Bjorklund, ; Gattis et al ., ; Hoicka & Gattis, ; Over & Gattis, ; Perra & Gattis, ; Sakkalou, Ellis‐Davies, Fowler, Hilbrink & Gattis, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective and faithful imitation at 12 and 15 months

Hilbrink

Sakkalou

Ellis-Davies

et al. 2013

Developmental Science

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Research on imitation in infancy has primarily focused on what and when infants imitate. More recently, however, the question why infants imitate has received renewed attention, partly motivated by the finding that infants sometimes selectively imitate the actions of others and sometimes faithfully imitate, or overimitate, the actions of others. The present study evaluates the hypothesis that this varying imitative behavior is related to infants' social traits. To do so, we assessed faithful and selective imitation longitudinally at 12 and 15 months, and extraversion at 15 months. At both ages, selective imitation was dependent on the causal structure of the act. From 12 to 15 months, selective imitation decreased while faithful imitation increased. Furthermore, infants high in extraversion were more faithful imitators than infants low in extraversion. These results demonstrate that the onset of faithful imitation is earlier than previously thought, but later than the onset of selective imitation. The observed relation between extraversion and faithful imitation supports the hypothesis that faithful imitation is driven by the social motivations of the infant. We call this relation the King Louie Effect: like the orangutan King Louie in The Jungle Book, infants imitate faithfully due to a growing interest in the interpersonal nature of interactions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective and faithful imitation at 12 and 15 months

Hilbrink

Sakkalou

Ellis-Davies

et al. 2013

Developmental Science

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“…Considering that comprehension of the task was dependent on verbal ability, perhaps these apparent differences across studies reflect variability in infants' comprehension of task instructions. Moreover, the task required goal‐directed imitation that involves understanding of an agent's intentions and acting on this knowledge by imitating the goals of the actor (Sakkalou, Ellis‐Davies, Fowler, Hilbrink, & Gattis, ). Thus, infants' gradual improvement in performance may indicate better grasp of task demands, as well as improvements in producing goal‐directed behavior.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowing who knows: Metacognitive and causal learning abilities guide infants’ selective social learning

Kuzyk

Grossman

Poulin‐Dubois

2019

Developmental Science

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Given the widespread interest in the development of children's selective social learning, there is mounting evidence suggesting that infants prefer to learn from competent informants (Poulin‐Dubois & Brosseau‐Liard, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2016, 25). However, little research has been dedicated to understanding how this selectivity develops. The present study investigated whether causal learning and precursor metacognitive abilities govern discriminant learning in a classic word‐learning paradigm. Infants were exposed to a speaker who accurately (reliable condition) or inaccurately (unreliable condition) labeled familiar objects and were subsequently tested on their ability to learn a novel word from the informant. The predictive power of causal learning skills and precursor metacognition (as measured through decision confidence) on infants' word learning was examined across both reliable and unreliable conditions. Results suggest that infants are more inclined to accept an unreliable speaker's testimony on a word learning task when they also lack confidence in their own knowledge on a task measuring their metacognitive ability. Additionally, when uncertain, infants draw on causal learning abilities to better learn the association between a label and a novel toy. This study is the first to shed light on the role of causal learning and precursor metacognitive judgments in infants' abilities to engage in selective trust.

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“…None of the ESCI items (N = 295) were collinear (all Spearman's Rho, r < .860). We next ran binary logistic regression with each item as the dependent variable, and age in months as the independent variable to examine whether the percentage of positive responses to each item generally increased with age, or whether (Carpenter, Akhtar, et al, 1998;Carpenter, Nagell, et al, 1998;Gergely et al, 2002;Hilbrink et al, 2013;Sakkalou et al, 2013;Sakkalou & Gattis, 2012) (Camaioni et al, 2004;Liszkowski, 2005;Liszkowski et al, 2004;Liszkowski et al, 2006;Liszkowski et al, 2007;McGillion et al, 2017) 12…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Early Social Cognition Inventory (ESCI): An examination of its psychometric properties from birth to 47 months

et al. 2021

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Social cognition refers to a broad range of cognitive processes and skills that allow individuals to interact with and understand others, including a variety of skills from infancy through preschool and beyond, e.g., joint attention, imitation, and belief understanding. However, no measures examine socio-cognitive development from birth through preschool. Current test batteries and parent-report measures focus either on infancy, or toddlerhood through preschool (and beyond). We report six studies in which we developed and tested a new 21-item parent-report measure of social cognition targeting 0–47 months: the Early Social Cognition Inventory (ESCI). Study 1 (N = 295) revealed the ESCI has excellent internal reliability, and a two-factor structure capturing social cognition and age. Study 2 (N = 605) also showed excellent internal reliability and confirmed the two-factor structure. Study 3 (N = 84) found a medium correlation between the ESCI and a researcher-administered social cognition task battery. Study 4 (N = 46) found strong 1-month test–retest reliability. Study 5 found longitudinal stability (6 months: N = 140; 12 months: N = 39), and inter-observer reliability between parents (N = 36) was good, and children’s scores increased significantly over 6 and 12 months. Study 6 showed the ESCI was internally reliable within countries (Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Trinidad and Tobago); parent ethnicity; parent education; and age groups from 4–39 months. ESCI scores positively correlated with household income (UK); children with siblings had higher scores; and Australian parents reported lower scores than American, British, and Canadian parents.

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Infants show stability of goal-directed imitation

Cited by 9 publications

References 23 publications

Selective and faithful imitation at 12 and 15 months

Selective and faithful imitation at 12 and 15 months

Knowing who knows: Metacognitive and causal learning abilities guide infants’ selective social learning

The Early Social Cognition Inventory (ESCI): An examination of its psychometric properties from birth to 47 months

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