Deferred imitation in 9-month-olds: How do model and task characteristics matter across cultures?

This study assessed deferred imitation in 9-month-old infants from the German middle-class (N = 44) and the ethnic group of Nso in rural Cameroon (N = 43). Infants either received an adult or an older child as a model. Moreover, the test material comprised varying degrees of target action difficulty. Across cultures and target actions infants imitated more when an adult model demonstrated the target actions. However, results revealed that infants did not show an adult model advantage for easier target actions, but only for those that were considered more difficult.

Source: International Journal of Behavioral Development - April 9, 2014 Category: Child Development Authors: Teiser, J., Lamm, B., Boning, M., Graf, F., Gudi, H., Goertz, C., Fassbender, I., Freitag, C., Spangler, S., Teubert, M., Lohaus, A., Schwarzer, G., Knopf, M., Keller, H. Tags: Articles Source Type: research