Infants between 4 and 21 weeks of age participated in two experiments involving the modeling of from 3 to 5 gestures. Frequencies of infants' reproduction of a modeled act were compared against baseline frequencies and against average frequencies of the act during periods when other actions were modeled. Suggest that imitation of gestures was…

Deferred imitation of object-related actions was studied at two ages, 12 and 18 months, to examine development of competence in observational learning. Three task categories were investigated: simple/single reiterative, and sequentially coordinated actions. Examination of partial successes at both ages was useful for suggesting phases in…

Describes research on young children's long-term memory under 2 conditions of acquisition: direct imitation followed by a 10-minute delay, or deferred imitation. Children were able to encode and retain as much from visual pickup of modeled acts as from feedback obtained through imitation. (Author/GH)