Imitation of coordinated actions: How do children perceive relations between different parts?

Abstract

Young children not only need to learn how to perform isolated actions, but also temporally and spatially coordinated actions such as using a knife and fork. Routes to learning such coordinated actions include imitation and participation in joint action. However, little is known about the mechanisms guiding transmission of coordinated actions through observation and joint action performance. This paper reports an experiment comparing children’s tendency to imitate multiple, coordinated actions following demonstration by a single model acting bimanually (Bimanual Observation condition), two models performing the same actions jointly with one performing each hand action (Joint Observation condition) and a condition in which the child actively takes part in the joint action demonstration by performing one part in coordination with a partner (Joint Action condition). When children were subsequently left alone to perform the task independently, they were more likely to imitate both coordinated actions in the two observation conditions than in the Joint Action condition, with no difference between performance in Bimanual and Joint Observation conditions. It is argued that this is due to children being more able to form a global representation of both actions and the relations between the two when observing from a distance than when actively involved in the task.

An Illusion of Self‐Sufficiency for Learning About Artifacts in Scaffolded Learners, But Not Observers

“…Indeed, some evidence suggests that children who mistakenly attribute their partner’s contributions to themselves in a joint task actually perform better at retest (Ratner et al, 2002; Sommerville & Hammond, 2007). However, in other cases, children who participate in joint‐action tasks with a partner fail at retest because they only reproduce their own actions, whereas children who merely observe joint‐action or complete the task alone are more successful (Milward & Sebanz, 2018). Thus, future work must still determine the conditions under which illusions of self‐sufficiency have positive or negative effects on learning itself.…”