Little is known about toddlers' acquisition of specific emotion regulation (ER) strategies, and how early ER is shaped by temperament. This study investigated if 24-month-old German toddlers, predominantly from families with high levels of parental education (N = 96, n = 49 male), learned the ER strategy distraction through observational learning,…

M. Tomasello, A. Kruger, and H. Ratner (1993) proposed a theory of cultural learning comprising imitative learning, instructed learning, and collaborative learning. Empirical and theoretical advances in the past 20 years suggest modifications to the theory; for example, children do not just imitate but overimitate in order to identify and…

Prior research has found that toddlers will form enduring artifact categories after direct exposure to an adult using a novel tool. Four studies explored whether 2- (N = 48) and 3-year-olds (N = 32) demonstrate this same capacity when learning by eavesdropping. After surreptitiously observing an adult use 1 of 2 artifacts to operate a bell via a…

Many adult beliefs are based on the testimony provided by other people rather than on firsthand observation. Children also learn from other people's testimony. For example, they learn that mental processes depend on the brain, that the earth is spherical, and that hidden bodily organs constrain life and death. Such learning might indicate that…

This study was designed to determine whether observed reward serves as a cue for matching. A total of 32 high- and low-dependent children observed a model perform a discrimination task and then played with the displayed materials. The results suggest that observed reward served as a cue for matching, facilitating selective attention in the…

Seventy second-grade children who had succeeded on pretests involving liquid conservation observed a nonconserving model and were subsequently retested. Regression to nonconservation was obtained only among some of the children who had been submitted to maximal pressure in the presence of an adult model. (Author/JMB)

Compared the abilities of 3 mother-reared and 3 human-raised (enculturated) chimpanzees and 16 human toddlers to imitatively learn novel actions on objects. Found that mother-reared chimpanzees were poorer imitators than both enculturated chimpanzees and human children, who did not differ from one another in imitative learning. On time delay…

Second-, third- and fourth-grade children participated in two experiments involving gameplaying. Substantial persistence and generalization of effects of exposure to a peer model were found. (JMB)

The effects of different degrees of stimulus organization on subsequent generalization were studied with 120 fourth-grade children. (BRT)

Significant gains in conservation of number, amount, mass and weight were made by 53 previously nonconserving first graders who either simply observed conservers' performance on mass and weight problems or argued with conservers about these problems. (Author/CW)

Observationally induced concept acquisition and generalization were studies in 132 second graders, using a clustering task. Groups were provided with a live or target model and different types of verbal coding. (ST)

Results suggest that the age composition of peer groups influences the performance of peer-modeled information, thus providing an indication that imitation of peers is a selective process influenced by the relative age of the model to the observer. Data also suggest that observational learning is a complex process involving considerable…

Preschool children with low levels of social responsiveness were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions: (1) watching videotapes of social interactions accompanied by a first-person sound track which described the activities of the child model, (2) watching the same videotapes accompanied by a third-person sound track, (3) a nature-film control…

Children's sharing and helping behaviors were observed after they had seen an adult who modeled donation behavior and/or who preached either about the importance of sharing or about the importance of helping others. (Author/JMB)

Social precursors to symbolic understanding of pictures were examined with 100 infants ages 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 months. Adults demonstrated 1 of 2 stances toward pictures and objects (contemplative or manipulative), and then gave items to infants for exploration. For pictures, older infants (12, 15, and 18 months) emulated the adult's actions…