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12‐Month‐Olds Produce Others' Intended but Unfulfilled Acts
Author(s) -
Nielsen Mark
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
infancy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.361
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1532-7078
pISSN - 1525-0008
DOI - 10.1080/15250000902840003
Subject(s) - psychology , set (abstract data type) , test (biology) , outcome (game theory) , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , social psychology , computer science , paleontology , mathematics , mathematical economics , biology , programming language
Following Meltzoff's (1995) behavioral reenactment paradigm, this study investigated the ability of 12‐month‐olds ( N = 44) to reproduce a model's attempted‐but‐failed actions on objects. Testing was conducted using a novel set of objects designed to enable young infants to readily identify the potential outcome of the model's actions. Infants who saw an adult's attempted‐but‐failed actions now produced her intended outcomes at an equivalent rate to infants who saw the model's completed acts, and significantly more so than infants who either observed an adult manipulating the test apparatus using nontarget actions or who did not see any actions demonstrated on the test apparatus. This result shows that, contrary to previous studies, 12‐month‐olds can produce the intended but unconsummated acts of others.