The relation between goal-predictive gaze behavior and imitation - A live eye-tracking study in 12-months-olds

  1. Franziska Sieber
  2. Jan Czarnomski
  3. Moritz M. Daum
  4. Norbert Zmyj
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Abstract

Children learn from others by imitating observed behavior. According to some theorists, in order to imitate an agent’s action, infants need to identify the agent’s action goal. To test this assumption, infants’ predictive gaze shifts were measured while they observed a live model’s action, and related to their imitation of this action, controlling for cognitive developmental status. In total, 104 German twelve-month-olds (57 female) observed an established imitation task (FIT 12, Goertz et al., 2006). The results revealed that infants anticipated action goals presented at a realistic speed. Furthermore, infants’ imitative behavior was related to their goal-predictive gaze shifts. This association was partially explained by cognitive-developmental status, which should be considered as an important factor in the development of imitation.

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  1. Version published to 10.31234/osf.io/4mfys on OSF Preprints