Automatic imitation in school-aged children Wermelinger, Stephanie; Moersdorf, Lea; Daum, Moritz M.
Journal of experimental child psychology,
02/2024, Letnik:
238
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
•Children imitate others to learn and reach social goals such as affiliation or prosociality.•Imitation can be measured via automatic imitation in adults.•Automatic imitation can be measured with an ...adult paradigm in school-aged children.•Children react faster in congruent than incongruent trials.•Children show lower error rates in congruent than incongruent trials.
Children imitate others for different reasons: To learn from others and to reach social goals such as affiliation or prosociality. So far, imitative acts have been measured using diverging methods in children and adults. Here, we investigated whether school-aged children’s imitation can be measured via their automatic imitation with a classical imitation-inhibition task (Brass et al., 2000) as has been used in adults. To this end, we measured automatic imitation in N=94 7–8-year-olds and N=10 adults. The results were similar in children and adults: Observing actions that are incongruent with participants’ actions interferes with their responses resulting in increased reaction times and error rates. This shows that assessing automatic imitation via the imitation-inhibition task is feasible in children, and creates the basis for future studies to compare the behaviour of different age groups with the same imitation task.
The ability to infer mental and affective states of others is crucial for social functioning. This ability, denoted as Theory of Mind (ToM), develops rapidly during childhood, yet results on its ...development across adolescence and into young adulthood are rare. In the present study, we tested the two‐component model, measuring age‐related changes in social‐perceptual and social‐cognitive ToM in a sample of 267 participants between 11 and 25 years of age. Additionally, we measured language, reasoning, and inhibitory control as major covariates. Participants inferred mental states from non‐verbal cues in a social‐perceptual task (Eye Test) and from stories with faux pas in a social‐cognitive task (Faux Pas Test). Results showed substantial improvement across adolescence in both ToM measures and in the covariates. Analysis with linear mixed models (LMM) revealed specific age‐related growth for the social‐perceptual component, while the age‐related increase of the social‐cognitive component fully aligned with the increase of the covariates. These results support the distinction between ToM components and indicate that adolescence is a crucial period for developing social‐perceptual ToM abilities.
Statement of contribution
What is already known on this subject?
To date, much research has been dedicated to Theory of Mind (ToM) development in early and middle childhood. However, only a few studies have examined development of ToM in adolescence.
Studies so far suggest age‐related differences in ToM between adolescents and young adults.
What this study adds
The study offers several methodological advantages including a large sample size with a continuous distribution of age (age 11–25) and the use of a comprehensive test battery to assess ToM and covariates (language, executive functions, reasoning).
The results provide evidence for asymmetries in the development of two ToM components (social‐perceptual and social‐cognitive; the two‐component account) across the studied age range:
the social perceptual component showed specific development, while the age‐related increase of the social‐cognitive component fully aligned with increase of the covariates.
Adolescence is a crucial period for developing social‐perceptual ToM abilities.
We explored the ability of children to adapt their communication to the needs of their communication partner. Monolingual and bilingual 3‐year‐old children (N = 110) observed two puppets looking for ...puzzle pieces. One puppet showed its appreciation of the children's help, the other puppet wanted to solve the puzzle on its own. The children's communicative acts were coded in terms of level of ostension (how obviously they indicated the hiding place of the puzzle piece) and level of information (how clearly they indicated the location). Monolinguals and bilinguals were equally helpful and informative. In contrast, only bilingual children adapted their level of ostension selectively between the two puppets. These findings point to the greater skills of bilinguals to adapt their communication accordingly.
Language that describes actions, for instance verbs, can help to predict future actions of conspecifics in social interactions. Language and action are therefore interrelated. This interrelation has ...been described on a behavioral level for adults and toddlers. Furthermore, in adults, the sensorimotor system is involved in this interrelation. However, little is known about the early interrelation on the neural level at the onset of verb acquisition. In the present study, we examined the role of the sensorimotor system during the processing of acoustically presented verbs that describe dynamic actions and visually presented actions in toddlers, who are in the earliest stage of expressive language development. The activity of the sensorimotor system, in particular the suppression of the mu rhythm, was measured by means of electroencephalography (EEG). Results showed a significant suppression of the mu rhythm during both the processing of action verbs and observed actions, but not during the processing of pseudoverbs. This suggests that the sensorimotor system is already involved in the processing of action and language early in life.
•Action and language processing are interrelated in adults and toddlers.•The sensorimotor system is involved in action and verb processing in adults.•We assessed the sensorimotor system's role in verb processing early in development.•We found that toddlers show sensorimotor activity for action and verb processing.
An inherent component of tool‐use actions is the transformation of the user's operating movement into the desired effect. In this study, the relevance of this transformation for young children's ...learning of tool‐use actions was investigated. Sixty‐four children at the age of 27–30 months learned to use levers which either simply extended (compatible transformation) or reversed (incompatible transformation) their operating movements. Data revealed a compatibility effect as well as transfer effects originating from the two different types of transformations. Furthermore, results suggest that young children's tool‐use learning is not a uniform process, but has to be regarded individually depending on the type of transformation.
•Laughter and humour are important elements of social and cognitive development.•Previous research suggested that humans may not be the only species that “laughs”.•We discuss possible common roots of ...human and animal humour.•Humour and humour-like behaviour can reveal cognitive and social development.•The SPeCies Perspective frames humour based on social, physiological, and cognitive factors.
This mini-review discusses the existing evidence on various forms of humour and humour-like behaviour in non-human animals, combining ontogenetic and phylogenetic perspectives. The first section describes humour-like behaviours, from the simplest to the most complex form (from laughing, tickling, joking, and chasing to ToM humour). In the second section, we propose the SPeCies (Social, Physiological, and Cognitive) Perspective, which frames the various types of humour based on Social motivation, Physiological state, and Cognitive skills. Finally, in the third section, we discuss future directions for further development.
Interoception, the perception of internal bodily signals, is fundamental to our sense of self. Even though theoretical accounts suggest an important role for interoception in the development of the ...self, empirical investigations are limited, particularly in infancy. Previous studies used preferential-looking paradigms to assess the detection of sensorimotor and multisensory contingencies in infancy, usually related to proprioception and touch. So far, only one recent study reported that infants discriminated between audiovisual stimuli presented synchronously or asynchronously with their heartbeat. This discrimination was related to the amplitude of the infant's heartbeat evoked potentials (HEP), a neural correlate of interoception. In the current study, we measured looking preferences between synchronous and asynchronous visuocardiac (bimodal), and audiovisuocardiac (trimodal) stimuli as well as the HEP in conditions of different emotional contexts and with different degrees of self-relatedness in a mirror-like setup. While the infants preferred trimodal to bimodal stimuli, we did not observe the predicted differences between synchronous and asynchronous stimulation. Furthermore, the HEP was not modulated by emotional context or self-relatedness. These findings do not support previously published results and highlight the need for further studies on the early development of interoception in relation to the development of the self.
The COVID‐19 pandemic has been influencing people's social life substantially. Everybody, including infants and children needed to adapt to changes in social interactions (e.g., social distancing) ...and to seeing other people wearing facial masks. In this study, we investigated whether these pandemic‐related changes influenced 12‐ to 15‐months‐old infants' reactions to observed gaze shifts (i.e., their gaze following). In two eye‐tracking tasks, we measured infants' gaze‐following behavior during the pandemic (with‐COVID‐19‐experience sample) and compared it to data of infants tested before the pandemic (no‐COVID‐19‐experience sample). Overall, the results indicated no significant differences between the two samples. However, in one sub‐task infants in the with‐COVID‐19‐experience sample looked longer at the eyes of a model compared to the no‐COVID‐19‐experience sample. Within the with‐COVID‐19‐experience sample, the amount of mask exposure and the number of contacts without mask were not related to infants' gaze‐following behavior. We speculate that even though infants encounter fewer different people during the pandemic and are increasingly exposed to people wearing facial masks, they still also see non‐covered faces. These contacts might be sufficient to provide infants with the social input they need to develop social and emotional competencies such as gaze following.
This study investigated preschool children's categorization and risk perception of products with ambiguous product characteristics (e.g., food-like packaging). These characteristics make it difficult ...for preschool children to categorize household chemicals correctly. This, therefore, increases the risk of unintentional poisoning. We hypothesized that ambiguity arises from different product characteristics, such as the type of packaging, the products' scent, or the packaging's color and transparency. In four behavioral tasks, N = 108 preschool children (M = 43 months, SD = 3) categorized different products and household chemicals with various types of packaging, colors, and scents. Individually wrapped dishwasher tablets were more likely to be categorized as edible than unwrapped ones. Furthermore, children who had interacted with any type of dishwasher tablet in the last 6 months performed better in identifying dishwasher tablets, regardless of packaging type. Household chemicals with a fruity scent were more likely to be categorized as drinkable than those with a chlorine scent. Finally, the children considered black bottles more dangerous and preferred them less than bottles of a different color. In contrast, bottle transparency generally did not seem to affect risk perception and preference. These findings confirm that ambiguous product characteristics influence children's categorization of unknown products and, thus, their risk perception and decision-making. Manufacturers and caregivers are advised to reduce the ambiguity of household chemicals by designing more neutral product packaging and choosing products with more neutral elements, respectively.
The importance of taking a lifespan approach to describe and understand human development has long been acknowledged (e.g., Baltes, 1987). Nevertheless, theoretical or empirical research that ...actually encompasses the entire lifespan, that is, from early childhood to old age, is rare. This is not surprising given the challenges such an approach entails. Many of these challenges (e.g., establishing measurement invariance between age groups) have been addressed in the previous literature, but others have not yet been sufficiently considered. The main purpose of this article is to present several examples of such largely unaddressed conceptual and methodological challenges and reflect upon possible ways to address them. We discuss the usefulness of a lifespan approach and the generalization of the challenges to other research comparing different groups, such as gender, culture, or species.
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