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Updated: Jun 10, 2026

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
Published on: April 28, 2016
Two-year-old children copy more reliably and more often than nonhuman great apes in multiple observational learning
Claudio Tennie1, Kathrin Greve, Heinz Gretscher
1Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. tennie@eva.mpg.de
Abstract:
Individuals observing a proficient model can potentially benefit by copying at least one of the following three elements: motor movements (i.e., actions), goals, and results. Although several studies have investigated this issue in human infants, there are still very few studies that have systematically examined great apes' ability to spontaneously copy each of these three elements (particularly in comparison with human infants). We tested great apes and human children with eight two-target puzzle boxes-with varying levels of difficulty-to isolate the aspects that the various species may be more prone to copying. We found first trial evidence for observational learning of actions, goals, and results in children. Some copying was found for apes as well, but only if their performance was averaged across trials.
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