Preschoolers’ Motivation to Over‐Imitate Humans and Robots
- Author(s)
- Hanna Schleihauf, Stefanie Hoehl, Neli Tsvetkova, Alexander König, Katja Mombaur, Sabina Pauen
- Abstract
From preschool age, humans tend to imitate causally irrelevant actions-they over-imitate. This study investigated whether children over-imitate even when they know a more efficient task solution and whether they imitate irrelevant actions equally from a human compared to a robot model. Five-to-six-year-olds (N = 107) watched either a robot or human retrieve a reward from a puzzle box. First a model demonstrated an inefficient (Trial 1), then an efficient (Trial 2), then again the inefficient strategy (Trial 3). Subsequent to each demonstration, children copied whichever strategy had been demonstrated regardless of whether the model was a human or a robot. Results indicate that over-imitation can be socially motivated, and that humanoid robots and humans are equally likely to elicit this behavior.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology
- External organisation(s)
- Max-Planck-Institut für Kognitions- und Neurowissenschaften, University of California, Berkeley, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Cognitive Ethology Laboratory, German Primate Center, Scientific Software Center, New Bulgarian University, University of Waterloo (UW)
- Journal
- Child Development
- Volume
- 92
- Pages
- 222-238
- No. of pages
- 17
- ISSN
- 0009-3920
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13403
- Publication date
- 01-2021
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 501005 Developmental psychology
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/c5255d8d-00ae-48cd-8eff-523489c88e38