Observational learning is essential for the acquisition of new behavior in educational practices and daily life and serves as an important mechanism for human cognitive and social-emotional development. However, we know little about its underlying neurocomputational mechanisms from a developmental perspective. In this study we used model-based…

This research examined the ways in which children observe flowering plants, namely: which features they perceive as significant, whether the skill of observing flowering plants develops with age, and what is the difference between genders. The research involved 174 children: 89 children aged 5 and 85 children aged 10 who were given the task of…

The purpose of this meta-analysis is to review the single-subject experimental literature and aggregate results across studies investigating the effects of video modeling (VM) to address independent living skill deficits of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID). A total of 20 studies including 67…

Despite a growing interest in the question of tool-use development in infants, no study so far has systematically investigated how learning to use a tool to retrieve an out-of-reach object progresses with age. This was the first aim of this study, in which 60 infants, aged 14, 16, 18, 20, and 22 months, were presented with an attractive toy and a…

Object use is a ubiquitous characteristic of the human species, and learning how objects function is a fundamental part of development. In this article the authors examine the role that intentionality plays in children's understanding of causal relationships during observational learning of object use. Children observed demonstrations in which…

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…

Twenty-four 14- and 30-month-old children observed a model use 20 new words as labels for objects of varied semantic associations. Age was highly and positively correlated with elicited and spontaneous imitation and scores for recognition of the objects associated with the words. (Author/SB)

The results showed that the majority of the autistic and the youngest normal children acquired only some limited features of the observational situation and chronological age was related to the amount of learning through observation in the normal children but not in the autistics. (Author)

Examines second graders' and sixth graders' observational learning of complex problem solving strategies. (BD)

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…

Preschoolers and second graders observed a model choose his "favorites" in a series of common object trios and were then asked to recall the model's choices. Results indicated that children's level of attention influences their level of learning in an observational setting. (ST)

Examined the development of the ability of 5-, 9-, and 13-year-old children to produce elemental and complex facial movements intentionally. (Author/DB)

Two studies investigated whether 10- and 12-month-olds can use televised emotional reactions to guide their behavior. Findings indicated that 12-month-olds avoided the target object and showed increases in negative affect after observing an actress orient toward a novel object with negative affect, but their responses to positive versus neutral…

Adults (either mothers or strangers) presented unfamiliar foods to 1- to 4-year-olds individually in their homes. Childrens' acceptance of the food was examined when the adults were eating and when they were simply offering the food. It was concluded that social facilitation could account for the data obtained. (Author/GO)

Three experiments were conducted with elementary school students which investigated whether modelling of unreinforced behavior influenced children to perform that behavior. Results indicated that the unreinforced behavior of the model serves both as a source of information and as a cue for unreinforced imitation. (DP)