As adults, we might understand that beliefs often spread because people are strongly influenced by their friends, family, and other social connections. However, do we think those influences are strong enough to overrule direct evidence of a friend's unreliability? And do preschoolers expect people to show such biases toward friends and to…

Four studies using a computerized paradigm investigated whether children's imitation performance is content-specific and to what extent dependent on other cognitive processes such as trial-and-error learning, recall, and observational learning. Experiment 1 showed that 3-year-olds could successfully imitate what we call novel cognitive rules…

What do toddlers learn from everyday picture-book reading interactions? To date, there has been scant research exploring this question. In this study, the authors adapted a standard imitation procedure to examine 18- to 30-month-olds' ability to learn how to reenact a novel action sequence from a picture book. The results provide evidence that…

Three experiments examined peer imitation with 14- to 18-month-old infants in laboratory, home, and day-care settings. After a delay, infants imitated actions performed by trained peers. Found that infants' recall of peers' actions was lower for infants imitating actions at home after a two-day delay than for infants imitating actions in the…

Although observational learning by children may occur through imitating a modeler's actions, it can also occur through learning about an object's dynamic affordances- a process that M. Tomasello (1996) calls "emulation." The relative contributions of imitation and emulation within observational learning were examined in a study with 14- to…

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…

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…

Two experiments studied five- to eight-year-old children's capacity to resist temptation as a function of observing a deviant model. (CM)

Examines the role of modeling and social reciprocity in the regulation of young boys' aggressive actions. Tested in pairs, 100 first- and second-grade students were assigned to five experimental conditions differing in whether one or both boys saw a film depicting aggression directed toward persons or toward inanimate objects. (RH)

The effects of a common dimension within a model's performance on different aspects of observational learning were examined in two experiments. Subjects were 220 second-grade children. (Author/MP)

Investigates preschoolers' knowledge of counting principles by examining their ability to discriminate between features essential for correct counting and features typically present but unessential. Skill in executing the standard counting procedure was found to precede knowledge of the underlying principle. (Author/AS)

Investigated the content and development of children's imitative behavior in the home. The data consisted of incidents of naturally occurring imitations of 24 children 16 and 29 months of age collected over a four-month period by mothers trained in observational recording. Immediate imitations decreased with age; deferred imitations increased with…

Investigates how feedback from a listener helps kindergarteners attend to message quality and how such feedback affects speaking and listening skills. Results indicate that kindergarteners learn to assess message adequacy by observing listeners flounder with inadequate messages.(Author/AS)

Attempts to identify deficits in object knowledge specific to the autistic syndrome. Examines the correspondence between sensorimotor and play behaviors and language in mentally retarded and normal children. Determines whether these correspondences are different for autistic, mentally retarded, and normal children.(Author/AS)