Children Can Imitate an Adult to the Point when They Become Confused

In humans, just as in members of the animal kingdom, the young learn by imitating adults. But now researchers from Yale University say that children are imitating adults so much that if they see an adult taking unnecessary measures or actions when they are using an object, the children will imitate the adult even if they know that there is an easier or quicker way to get the job done.

This happens even when the child is put under the pressure of a time frame or when the child is warned not to do the unnecessary actions. It seems like the children must copy the actions of the adults, even when they know they are wrong. The actions are so ingrained in their memory, that they cannot avoid doing them.

For a long time, the theory has been that the reason why children over-imitate is simply because they want to fit in. Or it is just a habit. The results from this study show that children will follow the way an adult does something until they change their mind about the way the object works.

The participants in the study were children between the ages of 3 and 5 and they were put through various exercises. In one of them, they were able to see a toy dinosaur through a clear plastic box. An adult then took the toy out, but did it by using unnecessary actions like tapping on the lid of the container that the toy was in with a feather and then unscrewing the lid. They then asked the children to tell them which of the adult's actions were silly and which made sense. The children received praise when they were right. The purpose of this exercise was to teach the children not to trust the adult and to just ignore any of the silly things he did.

Later on the children watched as adults took a toy turtle out of a box like they did the first time, with a lot of unnecessary actions. Despite the fact that they were told not to pay any attention to the unnecessary things the adult did, when the children were asked to take the turtle out of the box, they used the same actions as the adult.

In summary, the child's natural ability to imitate what he or she sees an adult do can make them more confused when what they see is either disorganized or inefficient. It can make it harder for them to do it right, even when they know what the right way is.

The lead researcher is Derek Lyons who is a doctoral candidate in developmental psychology.

Source; Yale University http://www.eurekalert.org/