TY - JOUR
T1 - The role of context in “over-imitation”
T2 - Evidence of movement-based goal inference in young children
AU - March, Joshua
AU - Rigby Dames, Brier
AU - Caldwell, Christine
AU - Doherty, Martin
AU - Rafetseder, Eva
N1 - This research was made possible thanks to a Ph.D. studentship attributed to the first author from the University of Stirling. In addition, the third author was supported by a European Research Council grant (648841 RATCHETCOG).
PY - 2020/2
Y1 - 2020/2
N2 - Children, as well as adults, often imitate causally unnecessary actions. Three experiments investigated whether such “over-imitation” occurs because these actions are interpreted as performed for the movement's sake (i.e., having a “movement-based” goal). Experiment 1 (N = 30, 2–5-year-olds) replicated previous findings; children imitated actions with no goal more precisely than actions with external goals. Experiment 2 (N = 58, 2–5-year-olds) confirmed that the difference between these conditions was not due to the absence/presence of external goals but rather was also found when actions brought about external goals in a clearly inefficient way. Experiment 3 (N = 36, 3–5-year-olds) controlled for the possibility that imitation fidelity was affected by the number of actions and objects present during the demonstration and confirmed that identical actions were imitated more precisely when they appeared to be more inefficient toward an external goal. Our findings suggest that movement-based goal inference encourages over-imitation.
AB - Children, as well as adults, often imitate causally unnecessary actions. Three experiments investigated whether such “over-imitation” occurs because these actions are interpreted as performed for the movement's sake (i.e., having a “movement-based” goal). Experiment 1 (N = 30, 2–5-year-olds) replicated previous findings; children imitated actions with no goal more precisely than actions with external goals. Experiment 2 (N = 58, 2–5-year-olds) confirmed that the difference between these conditions was not due to the absence/presence of external goals but rather was also found when actions brought about external goals in a clearly inefficient way. Experiment 3 (N = 36, 3–5-year-olds) controlled for the possibility that imitation fidelity was affected by the number of actions and objects present during the demonstration and confirmed that identical actions were imitated more precisely when they appeared to be more inefficient toward an external goal. Our findings suggest that movement-based goal inference encourages over-imitation.
KW - Action understanding
KW - Children
KW - Context
KW - Goal inference
KW - Imitation
KW - Intention
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85074630133&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104713
DO - 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104713
M3 - Article
C2 - 31726242
AN - SCOPUS:85074630133
SN - 0022-0965
VL - 190
JO - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
M1 - 104713
ER -