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Infants’ and Young Children's Imitation of Linguistic In‐Group and Out‐Group Informants
Author(s) -
Howard Lauren H.,
Henderson Annette M. E.,
Carrazza Cristina,
Woodward Amanda L.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.12299
Subject(s) - imitation , psychology , preference , context (archaeology) , group (periodic table) , developmental psychology , action (physics) , social learning , social group , social environment , observational learning , social psychology , cognitive psychology , experiential learning , chemistry , mathematics education , organic chemistry , paleontology , pedagogy , physics , quantum mechanics , political science , law , economics , biology , microeconomics
Although children can use social categories to intelligently select informants, children's preference for in‐group informants has not been consistently demonstrated across age and context. This research clarifies the extent to which children use social categories to guide learning by presenting participants with a live or video‐recorded action demonstration by a linguistic in‐group and/or out‐group model. Participants’ ( N = 104) propensity to imitate these actions was assessed. Nineteen‐month‐olds did not selectively imitate the actions of the in‐group model in live contexts, though in‐group preferences were found after watching the demonstration on video. Three‐year‐olds selectively imitated the actions demonstrated by the in‐group member regardless of context. These results indicate that in‐group preferences have a more nuanced effect on social learning than previous research has indicated.