DEVELOPMENT OF IMITATION AND UNDERSTANDING OF PERSONS

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION: Three lines of research on infant imitation are proposed. In the first, deferred imitation is used to probe infants' memory for novel actions performed by an adult model. Experiments ask, for example, how early can infants engage in deferred imitation of novel acts, over what delays can infants remember novel acts, and how is information about novel acts forgotten over the course of a week. In the second line of research, behavioral reenactment (a new paradigm which involves infants' imitation of an action a model attempted but failed to complete) is used to explore infants' understanding of the goals that underlie others' actions. Experiments test, for example, how early can infants engage in behavioral reenactment, what additional evidence is there that infants view failed attempts as goal-directed, and under what conditions do infants view ambiguous acts as goal-directed failed attempts. The third line of research focuses on facial imitation, and explores what changes occur with age in infants' imitation of facial gestures.