Department of Psychology, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, New Jersey, USA.
Infancy. 2022 Sep;27(5):887-899. doi: 10.1111/infa.12485. Epub 2022 May 26.
Infants have sophisticated knowledge about the physical world, and show enhanced learning about objects that violate physical principles. However, it is unknown whether infants also preferentially learn from the individual who produces an outcome that violates expectations. We investigated whether 15-month-old infants (N = 48) selectively imitate individuals who produce surprising outcomes. In Experiment 1, infants watched an experimenter hide a ball and produce an expected outcome in which the ball was revealed where it was hidden, or a surprising outcome in which the ball was revealed in a different location. The experimenter then demonstrated a novel action: using her head to activate a light while her hands were free. Infants imitated that novel action more if the experimenter had previously produced a surprising than an expected outcome. In Experiment 2, infants witnessed the experimenter produce the surprising outcome, then use her head to activate the light while her hands were occupied. Infants did not differentially imitate the head-touch action relative to either condition in Experiment 1, perhaps indicating a tension between surprise-induced learning and rational imitation. These experiments show that surprising events are pedagogical opportunities: infants selectively learn from surprising individuals, but also may account for rationality in their surprise-induced social learning.
婴儿对物理世界有着复杂的认识，并表现出对违反物理原理的物体的学习能力增强。然而，目前还不清楚婴儿是否也更倾向于从产生违反预期结果的个体那里学习。我们研究了 15 个月大的婴儿（N=48）是否会选择性地模仿产生出人意料结果的个体。在实验 1 中，婴儿观看了一个实验者隐藏一个球并产生了一个预期结果，即球被揭示在隐藏的地方，或者产生了一个出人意料的结果，即球被揭示在一个不同的位置。然后，实验者演示了一个新的动作：用头去激活灯，而手是自由的。如果实验者之前产生了出人意料的结果而不是预期的结果，婴儿会更模仿那个新的动作。在实验 2 中，婴儿目睹了实验者产生出人意料的结果，然后实验者用头去激活灯，而手被占用。婴儿没有相对于实验 1 中的任何一种情况对头部触摸动作进行差异模仿，这可能表明惊讶引起的学习和理性模仿之间存在紧张关系。这些实验表明，令人惊讶的事件是教学机会：婴儿会从令人惊讶的个体中选择性地学习，但也可能会考虑到他们在惊讶引起的社会学习中的理性。
