ERIC Number: EJ1022876
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-May
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0165-0254
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Deferred Imitation in 9-Month-Olds: How Do Model and Task Characteristics Matter across Cultures?
Teiser, Johanna; Lamm, Bettina; Böning, Mirjam; Graf, Frauke; Gudi, Helene; Goertz, Claudia; Fassbender, Ina; Freitag, Claudia; Spangler, Sibylle; Teubert, Manuel; Lohaus, Arnold; Schwarzer, Gudrun; Knopf, Monika; Keller, Heidi
International Journal of Behavioral Development, v38 n3 p247-254 May 2014
Studies investigating imitation are usually conducted with adult models in Western contexts; therefore, the influence of cultural context and the model's age on infants' imitation is largely unknown. 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.
Descriptors: Task Analysis, Infants, Infant Behavior, Imitation, Foreign Countries, Rural Areas, Cross Cultural Studies, Middle Class, Children, Adults, Modeling (Psychology), Cultural Context, Difficulty Level
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Publication Type: Reports - Research; Journal Articles
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Cameroon; Germany
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A