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Updated: Jan 6, 2026
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Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
Published on: April 28, 2016
34.9K
Being observed increases overimitation in three diverse cultures
Roman Stengelin1, Robert Hepach1, Daniel B M Haun1
1Leipzig Research Center for Early Child Development.
Developmental Psychology
|October 11, 2019
Summary
Children
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cross-Cultural Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Children's overimitation, common in Western societies, lacks clear understanding of its drivers.
- Cultural specificity of overimitation and its social motivations are not well-defined.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the social motivations behind children's overimitation across different cultural contexts.
- To determine if children's imitation is influenced by the model's presence and attentiveness.
Main Methods:
- Tested 125 children aged 3-8 from rural Namibia (Hai||om, Ovambo) and urban Germany.
- Utilized two overimitation paradigms to assess selective imitation and social motivation.
Main Results:
- Children across cultures selectively imitated more actions when the adult model was present.
- Imitation was not correlated with a separate measure of social motivation (re-engaging the adult).
Conclusions:
- Children's overimitation is socially motivated, particularly by the model's attentive state.
- Overimitation appears to be a cross-culturally consistent behavior driven by social cues.
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