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