Imitation of hierarchical action structure by young children

Whiten, A.; Flynn, E.; Brown, K.; Lee, K.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2006.00535.x

Imitation of hierarchical action structure by young children

Whiten, A.; Flynn, E.; Brown, K.; Lee, K.

Authors

A. Whiten

E. Flynn

K. Brown

K. Lee

Abstract

To provide the first systematic test of whether young children will spontaneously perceive and imitate hierarchical structure in complex actions, a task was devised in which a set of 16 elements can be modelled through either of two different, hierarchically organized strategies. Three-year-old children showed a strong and significant tendency to copy whichever of the two hierarchical approaches they witnessed an adult perform. Responses to an element absent in demonstrations, but present at test, showed that children did not merely copy the chain of events they had witnessed, but acquired hierarchically structured rules to which the new element was assimilated. Consistent with this finding, children did not copy specific sequences of actions at lower hierarchical levels.

Citation

Whiten, A., Flynn, E., Brown, K., & Lee, K. (2006). Imitation of hierarchical action structure by young children. Developmental Science, 9(6), 575-582. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2006.00535.x

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Nov 1, 2006
Deposit Date	Jan 8, 2008
Journal	Developmental Science
Print ISSN	1363-755X
Electronic ISSN	1467-7687
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	9
Issue	6
Pages	575-582
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2006.00535.x
Publisher URL	http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2006.00535.x