Deferred Imitation Across Changes in Context and Object: Memory and Generalization in 14-Month-Old Infants

Abstract

The influence of changes in context and object characteristics on deferred imitation was assessed in 14-month-old infants. In Experiment 1, infants in the imitation group saw an adult demonstrate target acts on miniature objects in an unusual context (an orange polka-dot tent). When later presented with larger objects in a normal laboratory room, these infants performed significantly more target acts than did controls. In Experiment 2, three groups of infants were tested. Infants in an imitation(no change) group saw an adult demonstrate target acts and were subsequently tested in the same room using the same objects as the adult. Infants in the imitation (context + object size & color change) group followed the same procedure, but both the context and two salient featural characteristics of the objects (size and color) were changed between encoding and the recall test of deferred imitation. Control infants did not see the target demonstrations. Results showed that the combined changes in context and object features led to a significant decrease in imitative performance. Nonetheless, in comparison to the controls, infants exhibited significant recall as indexed by deferred imitation. The results show that imitation generalizes across changes in object size, object color, and test context. The implications for theories of memory and representational development are discussed.

Keywords: amnesia; context; generalization; imitation; infants; memory; play; recall; shape; stimulus similarity.

Figure 1

Mean number of target acts produced by infants as a function of treatment. Infants in the three imitation groups (shaded bars) saw an adult demonstrate three target acts. Control infants did not see the demonstrations. Infants in the imitation(no change) group were tested in the same room with the same objects as those used by the adult. Infants in the imitation(context + object size change) group were tested in a different context (orange polka-dot tent vs. normal room) using objects differing in size from the originals. Infants in the imitation(context + object size & color change) group were tested in the different context using objects differing both in size and color from the originals. Error bars indicate ± 1 SE.