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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’...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2015
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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 |
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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 |
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