Kupán Krisztina, Király Ildikó, Kupán Kinga, Krekó Kata, Miklósi Ádám, Topál József
Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest 1117, Hungary.
Cognitive Psychology Department, Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest 1064, Hungary.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2017 Sep;161:186-194. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.03.019. Epub 2017 May 2.
Certain aspects of a demonstration have been shown to influence infants' interpretation of an observational situation and result in selective imitation. Studying social factors that trigger selective imitation may improve our understanding of how infants encode certain situations. However, only a few studies have investigated the possible interactions among these factors. In our study, 18-month-old infants (N=54) observed an adult demonstrator retrieve a toy from under an opaque ("baited") container by manipulating another transparent empty one. Infants were assigned to one of four conditions representing all combinations of two social factors: ostensive communication during demonstration (Communicative vs. Non-communicative) and presence of the demonstrator during reenactment (D-present vs. D-not present). Results suggest that infants' choice behavior was formed in two steps: during the demonstration and during the test phase. Furthermore, an interaction between the effects of the two levels was observed. Communication during the demonstration triggered imitative learning. Infants tended to copy the observed manipulation to learn the communicatively assigned way to reach the goal. This choice behavior was not influenced later by the presence or absence of the demonstrator. The non-communicative demonstration, however, did not elicit a particular learning mechanism. Therefore, in this situation, infants' choice behavior was affected by the demonstrator's presence or absence. Infants developed an individual solution and chose the baited container in the D-not present condition, indicative of emulation. In the D-present situation, they were more likely to reproduce the observed manipulation, which can be interpreted as a tendency to communicate with or conform to the demonstrator.
研究表明，演示的某些方面会影响婴儿对观察情境的理解，并导致选择性模仿。研究引发选择性模仿的社会因素可能会增进我们对婴儿如何编码特定情境的理解。然而，只有少数研究调查了这些因素之间可能的相互作用。在我们的研究中，18个月大的婴儿（N = 54）观察一名成人示范者通过操作另一个透明的空容器从一个不透明的（“放置诱饵的”）容器下取出一个玩具。婴儿被分配到代表两个社会因素所有组合的四种条件之一：演示过程中的明示交流（交流性与非交流性）以及重现过程中示范者的在场情况（示范者在场与示范者不在场）。结果表明，婴儿的选择行为分两个阶段形成：演示阶段和测试阶段。此外，观察到两个水平的效应之间存在相互作用。演示过程中的交流引发了模仿学习。婴儿倾向于模仿观察到的操作，以学习通过交流指定的达到目标的方式。这种选择行为后来不受示范者在场与否的影响。然而，非交流性演示并未引发特定的学习机制。因此，在这种情况下，婴儿的选择行为受示范者在场与否的影响。婴儿形成了一种个体解决方案，并在示范者不在场的情况下选择了放置诱饵的容器，这表明是模仿。在示范者在场的情况下，他们更有可能重现观察到的操作，这可以解释为与示范者交流或 conform to的倾向。（注：此处“conform to”原文有误，结合语境推测可能是“conform with”，意为“符合；与……一致”，但按照要求未做修改。）
