The influences of intentionality and effectiveness of adults’ behavior on infants’ imitation of object-related actions

Tatyana N. Kotova,

Alexey A. Kotov,

Tatyana O. Yudina

Published: Jan. 1, 2014

In the second year of life, infants are actively interested in objects used by adults, despite the number of experienced difficulties in achieving their goals while handling these objects. What causes the child attempt to handle an object for a designated purpose while watching the adult? One of the evident explanations concerns the effectiveness of the adults behavior and the child’s desire to achieve the same result. However, multiple studies have shown that a child is guided not exclusively by the hoped-for result, but also by the adults intention. In our study, we verified the reason guiding a child’s choice …