This study examined the degree to which cueing strategies were attended when participants viewed a video model using eye tracking technology. It also examined whether visual cues highlighting body movement versus the intended effect of the movement would be attended to equally. Participants (N = 55) were randomly assigned to one of five…

This experiment tested how 18-month-old infants' prior experience with an object affects their imitation. Specifically, we asked whether infants would imitate an adult who used her head to illuminate a light-box if they had earlier discovered that the light could be illuminated with their hands. In the Self-Discovery condition, infants had the…

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…

Understanding the intentional relations in others' actions is critical to human social life. Origins of this knowledge exist in the first year and are a function of both acting as an intentional agent and observing movement cues in actions. We explore a new mechanism we believe plays an important role in infants' understanding of new actions:…

The authors describe an intervention for 3 preschoolers with disabilities who had low peer-related social competence. The intervention taught academic skills tailored to the need of each target student in small groups (triads) with two typically developing peers, using a progressive time delay procedure. Prior to instruction and separate from the…

This study demonstrated selective "rational" imitation in infants in two testing conditions: in the presence or absence of the model during the response phase. In the study, 14-month-olds were more likely to imitate a tool-use behavior when a prior failed attempt emphasized the logical reason and relevance of introducing this novel means, making…

Action research is a method of examining one's own practice through reflection and critical self-study. In this paper, the author considers her experience teaching a two-day lesson on connections and relationships in William Forsythe's dance "One Flat Thing, reproduced" (2000) and the accompanying website, Synchronous Objects. The author reviews…

We tested expert baseball pitchers for evidence of especial skills at the regulation pitching distance. Seven college pitchers threw indoors to a target placed at 60.5 feet (18.44 m) and four closer and four further distances away. Accuracy at the regulation distance was significantly better than predicted by regression on the nonregulation…

Yoshida and Smith (this issue) provide one of the first attempts to overcome the most serious impediment to the use of head-mounted eye trackers with infants: Except in rare cases they are not light enough to be worn on an infant's head, or the infant does not tolerate looking through a half-silvered mirror that is hanging on a rigid stalk…

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…

Results of this study indicate that a model who gives verbal cues increases learning by retardates over both model-only and no-model treatments. However, a model only condition failed to differ from a no-model treatment. (Authors)

A study found that 4 boys (age 11) with mild disabilities were able to acquire the behaviors for instructive feedback stimuli when the stimuli were presented after trials on any of a set of target behaviors and could acquire instructive feedback behaviors during acquisition of or mastery of target behaviors. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

This study investigates how the combination of instructor modeling and question prompts for peer-questioning influences students' online questioning and answering activities. Fourteen students in a turfgrass management online class at a large land-grant university participated in two three-week sessions of online discussion. Two randomly selected…

Utilizing four pairs of preschoolers with Down's Syndrome, the efficacy of two prompt-fading procedures (decreasing assistance and graduated guidance procedure) was compared during instruction of two self-help skills. The efficacy of observational learning was also examined. Both prompt-fading procedures and observational learning were effective…

This study examined the effects of similarity to prior examples in predicting errors in dermatologic diagnosis. Two interpretations about the acquisition of expertise are independent cues and instance-based categorization. The subjects (N=16) were first-year family medicine residents from McMaster University (Ontario). (MLW)