Don’t try this at home: Toddlers’ imitation of new skills from people on video

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2008

Division

School of Education Counseling and Psychology in Education

Keywords

Representation; Symbol; Imitation; Social cognition; Video; Television

Disciplines

Cognitive Psychology | Developmental Psychology | Educational Psychology

Abstract

Imitation of people on educational television is a potential way for very young children to learn new skills. Although toddlers in previous studies exhibited a “video deficit” in learning, 24-month-olds in Study 1 successfully reproduced behaviors modeled by a person who was on video as well as they did those modeled by a person who was present in the room (even after a 24-h delay). Neither displaced filming context nor cuts between actions affected toddlers’ imitation from video. Shortening the demonstration in Study 2 affected imitation in the video condition but not in the live condition. In Study 3, 24-month-olds who viewed the original longer videos on their family TV screens (with which they had a viewing history) imitated significantly less than those who viewed the videos on the laboratory monitor. Imitation of a live modeler was the same across settings (home or lab). Implications for toddlers’ judgments of reliable information sources and for the design of educational television programs are discussed.

Publication Title

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Volume

101

First Page

262

Last Page

280

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2008.05.010

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