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Article published In: Interaction Studies
Vol. 21:3 (2020) ► pp.387–411

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Infant imitation in a third-party context

 | Uppsala University, Sweden
Published online: 9 February 2021
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https://doi.org/10.1075/is.19016.ste
Abstract
The present study examined 17-month-olds’ imitation in a third-party context. In four experiments, the infants watched while a reliable or an unreliable model demonstrated a novel action with an unfamiliar (Experiments 1 and 3) or a familiar (Experiments 2 and 4) object to another adult. In Experiments 3 and 4, the second adult imitated the model’s novel action. Neither the familiarity of the object or whether or not the second adult copied the model’s behavior influenced the likelihood of infant imitation. Findings showed that the infants in the reliable model condition were more willing to imitate the model’s action with the unfamiliar object. The results suggest that infants take into account the reliability of a model even when the model has not directly demonstrated her reliability to the infant.
Article outline
  • The present research
  • General method
  • Experiment 1. Unfamiliar object – no imitation
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Experimental conditions
      • Demonstration phase
      • Test phase
    • Set-up and materials
    • Procedure
    • Coding and reliability
    • Manipulation checks
    • Measures of infant variables
      • Demonstration phase
      • Test phase
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Experiment 2. Familiar object – no imitation
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Experimental conditions
    • Set-up and materials
    • Procedure
    • Coding and reliability
    • Manipulation checks
    • Measures of infant variables
      • Demonstration phase
      • Test phase
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Experiment 1 vs. Experiment 2
  • Experiment 3. Unfamiliar object – with imitation
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Experimental conditions
    • Set-up and materials
    • Procedure
    • Coding and reliability
    • Manipulation checks
    • Measures of infant variables
      • Demonstration phase
      • Test phase
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Experiment 4. Familiar object – with imitation
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Experimental conditions
    • Set-up and materials
    • Procedure
    • Coding and reliability
    • Manipulation checks
    • Measures of infant variables
      • Demonstration phase
      • Test phase
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Experiment 3 vs. Experiment 4
  • Experiment 1 vs. Experiment 3, Experiment 2 vs. Experiment 4
  • General discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
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2025. Third-party imitation is not restricted to humans. Scientific Reports 15:1 DOI logo
Stenberg, Gunilla
2023. Infants’ imitative learning from third-party observations. Interaction Studies. Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems 24:3 ► pp. 464 ff. DOI logo
Thiele, Maleen, Steven Kalinke, Christine Michel & Daniel B. M. Haun
2023. Direct and Observed Joint Attention Modulate 9-Month-Old Infants’ Object Encoding. Open Mind 7 ► pp. 917 ff. DOI logo

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