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Using the mother's actions as a reference for object exploration in 6‐ and 12‐month‐old infants
Author(s) -
Hofsten Claes,
Siddiqui Anver
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-835x.1993.tb00588.x
Subject(s) - psychology , perception , object (grammar) , developmental psychology , context (archaeology) , action (physics) , cognitive psychology , artificial intelligence , computer science , paleontology , physics , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , biology
The questions asked in the present paper concern the role of the social context in the early development of perception and action. How do infants acquire the various means of manual exploration and how do they get to apply these means appropriately to specific exploratory problems? An experiment is reported testing the possibility that infants learn these skills by observing adults doing them. Six‐month‐ olds and 12‐month‐olds were presented with four different objects which varied in form, size, texture, substance and sound potential. The subjects' mothers were also participants in the experiment and presented the objects to the infants after modelling a specific manipulation with it. Four different manipulations were modelled; banging, shaking, rubbing and rolling/sliding. These actions were paired orthogonally with the four objects. Amount of manual activity in each condition was compared to an initial baseline at which the objects were presented to the child without modelling. It was found that infants selectively imitated the actions performed by adults on objects. For the same object, some behaviours demonstrated by the mother were repeated much more frequently than others. Finally, the implications for perceptual development of the idea that infants utilize their adult surroundings for finding out about the world is discussed.