DO INFANTS SHOW GENERALIZED IMITATION OF GESTURES?

Two experiments were conducted to investigate generalized imitation of manual gestures in 1- to 2-year-old infants. In Experiment 1, 6 infants were first trained four baseline matching relations (e.g., when instructed "Do this", to raise their arms after they saw the experimenter do so). Next, four novel gestures that the infants did not match in probe trials were selected as target behaviors during generalized imitation Test 1; models of these gestures were presented on unreinforced matching trials interspersed with intermittently reinforced baseline matching trials. None of the infants matched the target behaviors. To ensure that these behaviors were in the infants' motor skills repertoires, the infants were next trained to produce them, at least once, under stimulus control that did not include an antecedent model of the target behavior. In repeat generalized imitation trials (Test 2), the infants again failed to match the target behaviors. Five infants (3 from Experiment 1) participated in Experiment 2, which was identical to Experiment 1 except that, following generalized imitation Test 1, the motor-skills training was implemented to a higher criterion (21 responses per target behavior), and in a multiple-baseline, across-target-behaviors procedure. In the final generalized imitation test, 1 infant matched one, and another infant matched two target behaviors; the remaining 17 target behaviors still were not matched. The results did not provide convincing evidence of generalized imitation, even though baseline matching was well maintained and the target behaviors were in the infants' motor skills repertoires, raising the question of what are the conditions that reliably give rise to generalized imitation.     

Comprehension and production of body part labels in 2‐ to 3‐year‐old children

This study examined which body part labels children could (i) produce when the experimenter touched different locations on her own body, asking each time ‘What's this?’ and (ii) comprehend by touching the correct locations on their own bodies in response to the experimenter asking ‘Where's the [body‐part label]?’. Seventeen children aged between 26 and 41 months, tested in a repeated measures procedure, were presented with 50 different body part stimuli in 200 test trials per child. Overall, the children produced fewer body part labels than they could comprehend. The accuracy of children's responses depended on (i) the location or extent of each body part (facial and broad body features were better known; joints and features in or attached to broad body parts the least well known); (ii) the amount of sensory (but not motor) representation each body part has in the human cortex; and (iii) whether a body part was commonly named by caregivers. These results present a precise mapping of the body parts that young children are able to name and locate on their own bodies in response to body part names; they suggest several possible determinants of lexical‐semantic body knowledge and add to the understanding of how it develops in childhood.     

Determinants of imitation of hand-to-body gestures in 2- and 3-year-old children

Twenty children, ten 2-year-olds and ten 3-year-olds, participated in an AB procedure. In the baseline phase, each child was trained the same four matching relations to criterion under intermittent reinforcement. During the subsequent imitation test, the experimenter modeled a total of 20 target gestures (six trials each) interspersed with intermittently reinforced baseline trials. In each session, target gestures were selected in a pre-randomized sequence from: Set 1--ear touches; Set 2--shoulder touches; Set 3--midarm touches; and Set 4--wrist touches; subjects' responses to targets were not reinforced. In each target set, half the gestures featured in nursery matching games and were termed common targets whereas the remainder, which were topographically similar but did not feature in the games, served as uncommon targets. The children produced significantly more matching responses to common target models than to uncommon ones. Common responses were also produced as mismatches to uncommon target models more often than vice versa. Response accuracy did not improve over trials, suggesting that "parity" did not serve as a conditioned reinforcer. All children showed a strong bias for "mirroring"--responding in the same hemispace as the modeler. The 2-year-olds produced more matching errors than the 3-year-olds and most children showed a bias for responding with their right hands. The strong effects of training environment (nursery matching games) are consistent with a Skinnerian account, but not a cognitive goal theory account, of imitation in young children.     

DO INFANTS SHOW GENERALIZED IMITATION OF GESTURES? II. THE EFFECTS OF SKILLS TRAINING AND MULTIPLE EXEMPLAR MATCHING TRAINING

The determinants of generalized imitation of manual gestures were investigated in 1‐ to 2‐year‐old infants. Eleven infants were first trained eight baseline matching relations; then, four novel gestures that the infants did not match in probe trials were selected as target behaviors. Next, in a generalized imitation test in which matching responses to baseline models were intermittently reinforced, but matching responses to target models were not eligible for reinforcement, the infants matched baseline models but not the majority of their target behaviors. To ensure their failure to match the target behaviors was not due to motor constraints, the infants were trained, in a multiple‐baseline procedure, to produce the target responses under stimulus control that did not include an antecedent model of the target behavior. There was no evidence of generalized imitation in subsequent tests. When the infants were next trained to match each target behavior to criterion (tested in extinction) in a multiple‐baseline‐across‐behaviors procedure, only 2 infants continued to match all their targets in subsequent tests; the remaining infants matched only some of them. Seven infants were next given mixed matching training with the target behaviors to criterion (tested in extinction); they subsequently matched these targets without reinforcement when interspersed with trials on which matching responses to baseline models were intermittently reinforced. In repeat tests, administered at 3‐week intervals, these 7 children (and 2 that did not take part in mixed matching training) continued to match most of their target behaviors. The results support a trained matching account, but provide no evidence of generalized imitation, in 1‐ to 2‐year‐old infants.     

Philosophy: National and International

The recent upsurge of national sentiments in the former socialist countries has also brought about the desire to create "national"philosophies. Such attempts are bound to be unsuccessful, partly because of the increasingly internationalized contexts of philosphical inquiry. What is possible instead and is actually taking place in many countries, cultures, and even cities are philosophical "schools" In smaller countries frequently the most productive position for philosophy is to be simultaneously national and international, facilitating in this way a critical discussion within the limited national cultural space and simultaneously pursuing universal philosophical problems.     

Rapid word learning in 13- and 17-month-olds in a naturalistic two-word procedure: looking versus reaching measures

This study investigated infants’ rapid learning of two novel words using a preferential looking measure compared with a preferential reaching measure. In Experiment 1, 21 13-month-olds and 20 17-month-olds were given 12 novel label exposures (6 per trial) for each of two novel objects. Next, in the label comprehension tests, infants were shown both objects and were asked, “Where’s the [label]?” (looking preference) and then told, “Put the [label] in the basket” (reaching preference). Only the 13-month-olds showed rapid word learning on the looking measure; neither age group showed rapid word learning on the reaching measure. In Experiment 2, the procedure was repeated 24 h later with 10 participants per age group from Experiment 1. After a further 12 labels per object, both age groups now showed robust evidence of rapid word learning, but again only on the looking measure. This is the earliest looking-based evidence of rapid word learning in infants in a well-controlled (i.e., two-word) procedure; our failure to replicate previous reports of rapid word learning in 13-month-olds with a preferential reaching measure may be due to our use of more rigorous controls for object preferences. The superior performance of the younger infants on the looking measure in Experiment 1 was not straightforwardly predicted by existing theoretical accounts of word learning.     

The impact of body-part-naming training on the accuracy of imitative performances in 2- to 3-year-old children

A series of three experiments explored the relationship between 3-year-old children's ability to name target body parts and their untrained matching of target hand-to-body touches. Nine participants, 3 per experiment, were presented with repeated generalized imitation tests in a multiple-baseline procedure, interspersed with step-by-step training that enabled them to (i) tact the target locations on their own and the experimenter's bodies or (ii) respond accurately as listeners to the experimenter's tacts of the target locations. Prompts for on-task naming of target body parts were also provided later in the procedure. In Experiment 1, only tact training followed by listener probes were conducted; in Experiment 2, tacting was trained first and listener behavior second, whereas in Experiment 3 listener training preceded tact training. Both tact and listener training resulted in emergence of naming together with significant and large improvements in the children's matching performances; this was true for each child and across most target gestures. The present series of experiments provides evidence that naming--the most basic form of self-instructional behavior--may be one means of establishing untrained matching as measured in generalized imitation tests. This demonstration has a bearing on our interpretation of imitation reported in the behavior analytic, cognitive developmental, and comparative literature.     

Outcomes of a Comparison Study into a Group-Based Infant Parenting Programme

This paper reports on a quantitative evaluation of a group-based programme designed to promote parent-infant attachment and child development. Whilst group-based parenting programmes are recommended for treating and preventing conduct disorder in older children, there is, as yet, little evidence as to whether they have a positive effect on very young children and their carers’. Recent UK Government initiatives to support families and improve parenting skills in the first 2 years of children’s lives have increased the demand for the delivery and evaluation of community-based programmes. Eighty mother–child dyads were recruited from nine areas to intervention (n = 54) and control condition (n = 26). Baseline measures were collected in the children’s home when the infants were on average 3-months-old, and follow-up measures were collected 6 months post-baseline (N = 63). Mothers’ positive play behaviours were independently coded from video recordings taken in the home. Other measures included self-reported maternal confidence and mental well-being, assessed infant development and home environment. Socio-demographic data was collected once at baseline. After controlling for baseline scores, control mothers were observed to be significantly less sensitive during play with their baby at the 6 months follow-up with a significant increase in confidence. No differences were found between the groups on the other measures. This paper provides limited evidence for the effectiveness of the Incredible Years Parents and Babies group-based programme delivered in the first year of life. Further evaluation, particularly with parents at increased risk of poorer outcomes is needed to confirm and extend these results.     

‘We Defend Western Civilization’: Serbian Representations of a Cartoon Conflict

This article explores how young Serbian intellectuals interpret and further recontextualize the global reactions to the publication of the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. On the basis of in-depth interviews and critical discourse analysis, we show how the Serbian mainstream discourses frame the ‘cartoon crisis’ in a specific way—Muslims are labeled as ‘fundamentalists’ and ‘terrorists’. The article argues that this provides a historical excuse to justify and legitimize the violent Serbian policies against the Bosnian and Kosovo Muslims during the 1990s. Furthermore, the informants appropriate the Muslim reactions by using an analogy: they draw parallels between violent global Muslim demonstrations caused by the publication of the cartoons and violent Muslim military attacks against the Serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo.