Psychology Commons^™

Child-­‐Directed Action Promotes 2-­‐Year-­‐Olds’ Imitation, Rebecca Williamson, Rebecca J. Brand

Psychology Faculty Publications

Children are voracious learners and adults are ubiquitous teachers. This project investigates whether the special infant-­‐ directed action modifications parents use when teaching their children (called “motionese”; Brand, Baldwin, & Ashburn, 2002) improves two-­‐year-­‐olds’ imitation. Children saw an adult perform a series of acts on four novel objects, using either an infant-­‐directed style (including larger range of motion and enhanced boundary marking) or an adult-­‐directed style. Children’s imitation of the acts was higher in the infant-­‐ directed relative to the adult-­‐directed condition, and both types of demonstration increased imitation relative to baseline (no demonstration). We propose that motionese may also …