Preschoolers’ Motivation to Over‐Imitate Humans and Robots

Author(s)
Hanna Schleihauf, Stefanie Hoehl, Neli Tsvetkova, Alexander König, Katja Mombaur, Sabina Pauen
Abstract

From preschool age, humans tend to imitate causally irrelevant actions-they over-imitate. This study investigated whether children over-imitate even when they know a more efficient task solution and whether they imitate irrelevant actions equally from a human compared to a robot model. Five-to-six-year-olds (N = 107) watched either a robot or human retrieve a reward from a puzzle box. First a model demonstrated an inefficient (Trial 1), then an efficient (Trial 2), then again the inefficient strategy (Trial 3). Subsequent to each demonstration, children copied whichever strategy had been demonstrated regardless of whether the model was a human or a robot. Results indicate that over-imitation can be socially motivated, and that humanoid robots and humans are equally likely to elicit this behavior.

Organisation(s)
Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology
External organisation(s)
Max-Planck-Institut für Kognitions- und Neurowissenschaften, University of California, Berkeley, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Cognitive Ethology Laboratory, German Primate Center, Scientific Software Center, New Bulgarian University, University of Waterloo (UW)
Journal
Child Development
Volume
92
Pages
222-238
No. of pages
17
ISSN
0009-3920
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13403
Publication date
01-2021
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
501005 Developmental psychology
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Education, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/preschoolers-motivation-to-overimitate-humans-and-robots(c5255d8d-00ae-48cd-8eff-523489c88e38).html