The interaction of social and perceivable causal factors in shaping ‘over-imitation’

Over-imitation has become a well-documented phenomenon. However there is evidence that both social and visible, physically causal factors can influence the occurrence of over-imitation in children. Here we explore the interplay between these two factors, manipulating both task opacity and social information. Four- to 7-year-old children were given either a causally opaque or transparent box, before which they experienced either (1) a condition where they witnessed a taught, knowledgeable person demonstrate an inefficient method and an untaught model demonstrate a more efficient method; or (2) a baseline condition where they witnessed efficient and inefficient methods performed by two untaught models. Results showed that the level of imitation increased with greater task opacity and when children received social information about knowledgeability consequent on teaching, but only for 6- to 7-year-olds. The findings show that children are selectively attuned to both causal and social factors when learning new cultural knowledge

A developmental examination of the modeling of aggression and altruism

The present investigation examined the relative influence of three distinct model types, i.e., aggressive, altruistic and a model who displays both aggression and altruism, to elicit specific behaviors from children of two ages and both sexes. Sixty-four children, thirty-two (sixteen boys and sixteen girls) from the preschool and fourth grade levels were randomly selected as subjects. Each child observed a same sex model display the three model types in a specific task situation. Children, regardless of sex and age, imitated the altruistic model significantly more than the aggressive model and further, seemed to prefer altruistic responses over aggressive ones in all conditions. The implications of an altruistic predisposition are discussed in relation to the often cited male predisposition to be more aggressive

The effects of an enriched environment and teacher intervention on the dramatic and sociodramatic play of children

This study examined the effects of an enriched environment and teacher intervention on the dramatic and sociodramatic play of four to five year old children in Singapore. Three groups, comprising one experimental group with an enriched play environment, another experimental group with an enriched play environment and teacher intervention, and a control group without any intervention, with a total of thirty-six children from three childcare centres, were observed in the classroom setting. The Smilansky Scale for Evaluation of Dramatic and Sociodramatic Play was used to evaluate and rate the six play elements of Imitative Role Play, Make-Believe with Objects, Make-Believe with Actions and Situations, Persistence in Role Play, Interaction and Verbal Communication, that occurred in the children's play sessions. Pre and post intervention data were analysed using paired t tests, analysis of variance, and chi-square to determine effects of the interventions. A qualitative perspective was included to provide additional information on the children's play. Overall, the results and analyses indicated increased play levels in the dramatic and sociodramatic play of the children in both experimental groups, and revealed more significant effects on the dramatic and sociodramatic play of children with the enriched play environment. Research has supported the influence of the enriched play environment (Petrakos and Howe, 1996), and the effects of the enriched play environment and teacher intervention (Smilansky, 1968) in children's play. The findings of this study serve to highlight the effects of the enriched environment and teacher intervention in enhancing the dramatic and sociodramatic play of children. The need to evaluate the role of teachers in children's play is also highlighted, with implications for teacher training programmes in the local context to emphasise the values and understanding of play in relation to learning experiences for children and the preschool curriculum

Does imitation facilitate the acquisition of grammar? Evidence from a study of autistic, Down's syndrome and normal children.

This paper re-opens the question of whether imitation plays a sig-nificant role in the acquisition of grammar. Data for this study came from four samples of naturalistic mother-child speech taken over the course of one year from four autistic, four Down's syndrome and four normal children, covering a range of MLU stages. In general, autistic children used more formulaic language, including imitations, than Down's syndrome children, who in turn used more than the normal children. Comparisons of imitative and spontaneous corpora from the same transcripts were made using MLU and the Index of Productive Syntax. The main findings were that, with few exceptions, spontaneous speech utterances were longer, and contained more advanced gram-matical constructions than did the imitation utterances. These findings held across all three groups of subjects. We conclude that imitation does not facilitate grammatical development