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Abstract:
This dissertation investigated how characteristics of models influence imitation in
one-year-old infants. In particular, we investigated the impact of a model’s age when
performing novel and familiar behaviour as well as complete and incomplete behaviour.
Moreover, we further examined the influence of a model’s reliability on imitation.
In Experiment 1 we tested whether infants were able to detect differences in the
rationality of a novel action when the models were televised. In Experiment 2 we
investigated how a model’s age influences infants’ tendency to imitate depending on
whether novel behaviour (Experiment 2a: illuminating a lamp by using the head) or
familiar behaviour (Experiment 2b: performing body movements) were presented. The
motivation for conducting Experiment 3 was twofold. The first part of Experiment 3
addressed the question of whether the type of behaviour and time of coding imitative
behaviour influenced the findings of Experiment 2b. The second part of Experiment 3
explored how 14-month-olds re-enact failed attempts of familiar object-directed actions
from differently aged models. Finally, Experiment 4 investigated whether infants
imitate reliable models more often than unreliable models when observing novel
behaviour.
To summarise, these results of these experiments indicate that infants are
remarkably flexible imitators. Two distinct motivations interact with a model’s
characteristics in imitation tasks: that is, besides the motivation to learn novel behaviour
from reliable adults via imitation, infants use imitation of familiar behaviour in order to
interact socially with peers.
