Selective imitation in 6-month-olds: the role of the social and physical context

Six-month-old infants\u27 learning of a new action from two different models (mother/stranger) was assessed in two settings (home/laboratory). In the laboratory, a significant number of infants learned the action from a stranger but not from their mother. In the infants\u27 homes, this pattern was reversed

Stress affects the prediction of others’ behavior

Predicting behavior of other people is vital for successful social interactions. We tested whether a stress-induced cortisol increase affects healthy young men’s prediction of another individual’s behavior. Forty-two participants were randomly assigned to a stress or to a control condition. Afterwards, they participated in a modified false-belief task that not only tests false-belief understanding but also the tendency to predict another person’s future behavior based on his former behavior. Subjective ratings and salivary cortisol concentrations revealed a successful stress induction. Stress did not affect participants’ attribution of false beliefs but it increased the probability to predict that a protagonist would act according to his former behavior. Recognizing that stress fosters the interpretation of others’ behavior following their former behavior and not their current goals extends previous research showing that stress fosters our own habitual behavior

The development of children’s egalitarianism in the context of group membership and resource valence

Children’s motivation for the egalitarian allocation of resources is reflected in their allocation of positive and negative resources between themselves and others. In the present study, 6- (n = 29) and 8-year-olds (n = 25) could choose between different allocations of positive and negative resources to themselves and others in a series of games. The other player was either an ingroup member or an outgroup member. Results revealed that, overall and irrespective of resource valence, 8-year-olds were more likely to choose an egalitarian allocation of resources than 6-year-olds. 8-year-olds also shared more positive resources with the outgroup member than 6-year-olds. Children’s egalitarianism is discussed in light of theories of prosocial development.Die Motivation von Kindern, Ressourcen egalitär zu verteilen zeigt sich bei der Verteilung von positiven wie auch negativen Ressourcen zwischen sich selbst und anderen. In dieser Studie konnten 6- (n = 29) und 8-Jährige (n = 25) zwischen verschiedenen Verteilungen von positiven und negativen Ressourcen zwischen sich selbst und einem anderen Kind in einer Reihe von Spielen entscheiden. Das andere Kind war entweder ein Mitglied der Eigengruppe oder ein Mitglied einer Fremdgruppe. Als Ergebnis zeigte sich, dass 8-Jährige häufiger als 6-Jährige unabhängig von der Valenz der Ressource eine Gleichverteilung wählten. Des Weiteren teilten die 8-Jährigen häufiger als 6-Jährige positive Ressourcen egalitär zwischen sich und dem Kind der Fremdgruppe auf. Dieser Egalitarismus bei Kindern wird vor dem Hintergrund von Theorien zur Entwicklung prosozialen Verhaltens diskutiert

Investigating the effects of perceived student gender on primary school teachers' recognition of autism

Recent research indicates that autism is under-recognized in girls and women. The current study investigated whether the gender-based assumptions of teaching staff impact the identification of autism. A survey was completed by 249 primary school teaching staff. After reading a vignette describing the behavior of a hypothetical child whose gender was randomly assigned, participants answered questions regarding possible reasons for the behavior described, including mental health and disability diagnoses and their confidence in their chosen answers. The gender of the described child was not found to have an impact on the likelihood of choosing autism as a potential diagnosis, suggesting that the participants did not make gender-based assumptions about autism characteristics. Higher qualified teachers were less confident in their answers than those with lower or no qualifications. Teachers may have more nuanced understandings of the complexities of autism than had been expected. Further research into the effect of gender on autism identification is needed

Inter-rater reliability and acceptance of the structured diagnostic interview for regulatory problems in infancy

Background: Regulatory problems such as excessive crying, sleeping–and feeding difficulties in infancy are some of the earliest precursors of later mental health difficulties emerging throughout the lifespan. In the present study, the inter-rater reliability and acceptance of a structured computer-assisted diagnostic interview for regulatory problems (Baby-DIPS) was investigated. Methods: Using a community sample, 132 mothers of infants aged between 3 and 18 months (mean age = 10 months) were interviewed with the Baby-DIPS regarding current and former (combined = lifetime) regulatory problems. Severity of the symptoms was also rated. The interviews were conducted face-to-face at a psychology department at the university (51.5 %), the mother’s home (23.5 %), or via telephone (25.0 %). Inter-rater reliability was assessed with Cohen’s kappa (k). A sample of 48 mothers and their interviewers filled in acceptance questionnaires after the interview. Results: Good to excellent inter-rater reliability on the levels of current and lifetime regulatory problems (k = 0.77–0.98) were found. High inter-rater agreement was also found for ratings of severity (ICC = 0.86–0.97). Participants and interviewers’ overall acceptance ratings of the computer-assisted interview were favourable. Acceptance scores did not differ between interviews that revealed one or more clinically relevant regulatory problem(s) compared to those that revealed no regulatory problems. Conclusions: The Baby-DIPS was found to be a reliable instrument for the assessment of current and lifetime problems in crying and sleeping behaviours. The computer-assisted version of the Baby-DIPS was well accepted by interviewers and mothers. The Baby-DIPS appears to be well-suited for research and clinical use to identify infant regulatory problems

Timely sleep facilitates declarative memory consolidation in infants

Human infants devote the majority of their time to sleeping. However, very little is known about the role of sleep in early memory processing. Here we test 6- and 12-mo-old infants’ declarative memory for novel actions after a 4-h [Experiment (Exp.) 1] and 24-h delay (Exp. 2). Infants in a nap condition took an extended nap (≥30 min) within 4 h after learning, whereas infants in a no-nap condition did not. A comparison with age-matched control groups revealed that after both delays, only infants who had napped after learning remembered the target actions at the test. Additionally, after the 24-h delay, memory performance of infants in the nap condition was significantly higher than that of infants in the no-nap condition. This is the first experimental evidence to our knowledge for an enhancing role of sleep in the consolidation of declarative memories in the first year of life

The role of demonstrator familiarity and language cues on infant imitation from television

An imitation procedure was used to investigate the impact of demonstrator familiarity and language cues on infant learning from television. Eighteen-month-old infants watched two pre-recorded videos showing an adult demonstrating a sequence of actions with two sets of stimuli. Infants' familiarity with the demonstrator and the language used during the demonstration varied as a function of experimental condition. Immediately after watching each video, infants' ability to reproduce the target actions was assessed. A highly familiar demonstrator did not enhance infants' performance. However, the addition of a narrative, developed from mothers' naturalistic description of the event, facilitated learning from an unfamiliar demonstrator. We propose that the differential effect of demonstrator familiarity and language cues may reflect the infants' ability to distinguish between important and less important aspects in a learning situation. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Development of infant imitation : the role of social cues for learning and memory

Imitation research has made a significant contribution to our understanding of maturational changes in infant learning and memory (Hayne, 2004). However, surprisingly little is known about the role of the model, and interactions between infant and model, for encoding and retention in imitation procedures. This thesis provides a systematic investigation of how learning and memory are influenced by social cues infants encounter inside and outside the experimental situation. The present studies revealed that familiarity with a model impacts on 6-month-olds' imitative learning. In Experiments 1-2, infants were more likely to learn from a familiar model than from an unfamiliar model when tested in a familiar (home) environment. In an unfamiliar (laboratory) environment, learning was more likely to occur if the model was unfamiliar rather than familiar. By 9 months, infants showed equal levels of learning from familiar and unfamiliar models in an unfamiliar environment (Experiment 3). Experiments 4-5 demonstrated that I8-month-olds' learning was not influenced by model familiarity, even in a difficult imitation task (i.e., learning from televised demonstrations). Instead, learning was enhanced by the provision of language cues and by a training procedure that taught infants to perceive the televised model as a valuable source of real-world information. Finally, Experiments 6-7 investigated the effect of similarity with a model, rather than familiarity, on \5- and 24-month-olds' imitation. In Experiment 6, there was a shift from an adult- to a peer-model advantage: Increased age and exposure to same-aged infants augmented imitation from the peer model. No differences in learning from peers and adults were observed in Experiment 7 when the demonstrations were accompanied by language cues. This research revealed that infants become increasingly proficient in using social cues for learning and remembering. Furthermore, the relative effectiveness of different cues depends on the infants' developmental niche at the time of test.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo