Exploring the roles of peer and adult video models for infant imitation

Research seeking to determine whether imitation of gestures is within the neonate's and young infant's competence has yielded discrepant findings. Some studies report imitation of at least one gesture, tongue protrusion, whereas others fail to find significant matching of even this action for infants aged 1 to 4 months. Videotaped presentations of a peer and an adult modeling tongue protrusions and mouth opening/closing were shown to infants with mean ages of 13 and 23 weeks in an attempt to test the efficacy of peer models and to free modeling from any potential bias. With both baseline and arousal controls to assess the significance of tongue protrusions and mouth openings to their respective models, no significant effects of modeling were discernible at either age in Study 1, Study 2 was conducted to address possible design limitations of the first investigation. Only one significant effect favoring an interpretation of imitative matching was obtained; it occurred at 12 weeks, following video presentations of tongue protrusions by an adult. This single effect may have been a chance result. Granting the two-dimensionality of the video image, imitative-like matching appears not to be engendered with great efficacy by a dynamic pattern that preserves characteristics of facial gestures, whether the gestures are modeled by an infant peer or by an adult.