We present three studies exploring 2- to 4-year-olds' imitation on witnessing a model whose questionable tool use choices suggested her untrustworthiness. In Study 1, children observed the model accidentally select a physically optimal tool for a task and then intentionally reject it for one that was functionally nonaffordant. When asked to…

This article reconstructs R. S. Peters' underlying theory of ritual in education, highlighting his proposed link between ritual and the imitation of teachers. Rituals set the stage for the imitation of teachers and they invite students to experience practices whose value is not easily discernable from the outside. For Peters, rituals facilitate…

Imitation of people on educational television is a potential way for very young children to learn new skills. Although toddlers in previous studies exhibited a "video deficit" in learning, 24-month-olds in Study 1 successfully reproduced behaviors modeled by a person who was on video as well as they did those modeled by a person who was present in…

We investigated whether the tendency to imitate or emulate is influenced by the availability of causal information, and the amount of information available in a display. Three and 5-year-old children were shown by either a live or video model how to obtain a reward from either a clear or an opaque puzzle box. Some of the actions in the sequence…

The present work documents how the logic of a model's demonstration and the communicative cues that the model provides interact with age to influence how children engage in social learning. Children at ages 12, 18, and 24 months (n = 204) watched a model open a series of boxes. Twelve-month-old subjects only copied the specific actions of the…

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…

The authors argue that imitation is a flexible and adaptive learning mechanism in that children do not always reproduce all of the details they can from a demonstration. Instead, they vary their replications depending on their interpretation of the situation. Specifically, the authors propose that when children do not understand the overall reason…

The degree to which children aged 2 and under imitated a peer's novel uses of a material was examined. After being trained to emit "correct use responses" with the materials a child was placed in a peer group with instructions to show other children what he had learned. Results are discussed. (SE)

Extends the findings of previous research which has shown that children who are imitated by an adult are subsequently more imitative of that adult than are children who have not been imitated. Examines the persistence of this effect through additional trials over a seven day period. Subjects were second grade children. (BD/BR)

Results of two experiments indicate that dimensions of the social situation in which social behaviors are modeled influence eight-month-old children's tendency to imitate and their choice of recipients for their imitation. (Author/RH)

Effects of modeling and contingent praise on infant's motor response topographies were experimentally analyzed. Three male 10-month-olds showed systematic increases in targeted training and probe response topographies after introduction of the modeling and praise treatment procedure. Thus generalized imitation with infants was demonstrated. (RH)

The relationships among decentration, decontexturalization, and integration in the same children were investigated to reexamine sequences of actor-object play for the purpose of revising and extending previous models. The results contribute to the understanding of complex play by establishing the variability of component relationships and…

Examines extent to which knowing that certain things go together and knowing how they do are independent aspects of developing cognitive systems. Indicates that children use temporal order as organizing principle by three years of age. Suggests an earlier developmental horizon as the origin of ordering abilities. (Author/BE)

The influence of ability differences on fifth and sixth graders' imitations of modeled standards of self-reward was examined. (MP)

Investigates the manner in which preschool children use two sources of sex-appropriateness information (labeling and modeling) to direct their subsequent behavior and preferences for associated items. It is suggested that young children give lesser weights to the sex of a single model than to labels that may summarize general rules of conduct.…