Cargando…

Imitation by combination: preschool age children evidence summative imitation in a novel problem-solving task

Children are exceptional, even ‘super,’ imitators but comparatively poor independent problem-solvers or innovators. Yet, imitation and innovation are both necessary components of cumulative cultural evolution. Here, we explored the relationship between imitation and innovation by assessing children’...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Subiaul, Francys, Krajkowski, Edward, Price, Elizabeth E., Etz, Alexander
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4585006/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26441782
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01410
_version_ 1782392112832053248
author Subiaul, Francys
Krajkowski, Edward
Price, Elizabeth E.
Etz, Alexander
author_facet Subiaul, Francys
Krajkowski, Edward
Price, Elizabeth E.
Etz, Alexander
author_sort Subiaul, Francys
collection PubMed
description Children are exceptional, even ‘super,’ imitators but comparatively poor independent problem-solvers or innovators. Yet, imitation and innovation are both necessary components of cumulative cultural evolution. Here, we explored the relationship between imitation and innovation by assessing children’s ability to generate a solution to a novel problem by imitating two different action sequences demonstrated by two different models, an example of imitation by combination, which we refer to as “summative imitation.” Children (N = 181) from 3 to 5 years of age and across three experiments were tested in a baseline condition or in one of six demonstration conditions, varying in the number of models and opening techniques demonstrated. Across experiments, more than 75% of children evidenced summative imitation, opening both compartments of the problem box and retrieving the reward hidden in each. Generally, learning different actions from two different models was as good (and in some cases, better) than learning from 1 model, but the underlying representations appear to be the same in both demonstration conditions. These results show that summative imitation not only facilitates imitation learning but can also result in new solutions to problems, an essential feature of innovation and cumulative culture.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4585006
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-45850062015-10-05 Imitation by combination: preschool age children evidence summative imitation in a novel problem-solving task Subiaul, Francys Krajkowski, Edward Price, Elizabeth E. Etz, Alexander Front Psychol Psychology Children are exceptional, even ‘super,’ imitators but comparatively poor independent problem-solvers or innovators. Yet, imitation and innovation are both necessary components of cumulative cultural evolution. Here, we explored the relationship between imitation and innovation by assessing children’s ability to generate a solution to a novel problem by imitating two different action sequences demonstrated by two different models, an example of imitation by combination, which we refer to as “summative imitation.” Children (N = 181) from 3 to 5 years of age and across three experiments were tested in a baseline condition or in one of six demonstration conditions, varying in the number of models and opening techniques demonstrated. Across experiments, more than 75% of children evidenced summative imitation, opening both compartments of the problem box and retrieving the reward hidden in each. Generally, learning different actions from two different models was as good (and in some cases, better) than learning from 1 model, but the underlying representations appear to be the same in both demonstration conditions. These results show that summative imitation not only facilitates imitation learning but can also result in new solutions to problems, an essential feature of innovation and cumulative culture. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-09-28 /pmc/articles/PMC4585006/ /pubmed/26441782 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01410 Text en Copyright © 2015 Subiaul, Krajkowski, Price and Etz. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Subiaul, Francys
Krajkowski, Edward
Price, Elizabeth E.
Etz, Alexander
Imitation by combination: preschool age children evidence summative imitation in a novel problem-solving task
title Imitation by combination: preschool age children evidence summative imitation in a novel problem-solving task
title_full Imitation by combination: preschool age children evidence summative imitation in a novel problem-solving task
title_fullStr Imitation by combination: preschool age children evidence summative imitation in a novel problem-solving task
title_full_unstemmed Imitation by combination: preschool age children evidence summative imitation in a novel problem-solving task
title_short Imitation by combination: preschool age children evidence summative imitation in a novel problem-solving task
title_sort imitation by combination: preschool age children evidence summative imitation in a novel problem-solving task
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4585006/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26441782
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01410
work_keys_str_mv AT subiaulfrancys imitationbycombinationpreschoolagechildrenevidencesummativeimitationinanovelproblemsolvingtask
AT krajkowskiedward imitationbycombinationpreschoolagechildrenevidencesummativeimitationinanovelproblemsolvingtask
AT priceelizabethe imitationbycombinationpreschoolagechildrenevidencesummativeimitationinanovelproblemsolvingtask
AT etzalexander imitationbycombinationpreschoolagechildrenevidencesummativeimitationinanovelproblemsolvingtask