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Updated: May 31, 2026
06:35
Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
Published on: April 28, 2016
Imitation in infancy: rational or motor resonance?
Markus Paulus1, Sabine Hunnius, Marlies Vissers
1Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition & Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. m.paulus@donders.ru.nl
Child Development
|June 18, 2011
Summary
Infants
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Cognitive science
- Infant motor development
Background:
- Imitation in infancy is crucial for social learning.
- Two proposed mechanisms for infant imitation are rational action and motor resonance.
- Motor resonance involves mapping observed actions onto one's own motor repertoire.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relative contributions of rational action and motor resonance in infant imitation.
- To determine which mechanism, action efficiency evaluation or motor mapping, is more influential in 14-month-old infants' imitation.
Main Methods:
- Tested 95 infants at 14 months of age across 5 experimental conditions.
- Manipulated the matchability of observed actions to infants' motor repertoire.
- Varied whether observed actions appeared efficient or inefficient.
Main Results:
- Infant imitation was significantly influenced by the degree to which observed actions could be mapped onto their motor repertoire.
- The perceived efficiency of an observed action had a less pronounced effect on imitation.
- Motor resonance demonstrated a more central role in imitation than rational action evaluation.
Conclusions:
- Motor resonance is a primary driver of imitation in early infancy.
- Infants' imitation is more strongly linked to their ability to internally replicate actions than to evaluating action efficiency.
- Findings highlight the importance of motor mapping in early social learning and imitation development.
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