Generalized imitation in infants

Effects of modeling and contingent praise on infant's motor response topographies were experimentally analyzed. Three 10-month-old male infants and their mothers participated in 20-min. experimental sessions two to four times a week for 2 to 7 months. During each session a mother presented her infant with 15 toys randomly selected from a pool of 45. The infant was allowed to play with each toy for 1 min. During treatment the mother modeled prescribed responses with each toy, and during 10 training trials per session, she praised her infant if he emitted topographically similar responses. Interspersed among training trials were five probe trials for which praise was seldom available. All three infants showed systematic increases in the targeted training and probe response topographies following the introduction of the modeling and praise treatment procedure. Thus, responding during probes demonstrated generalized imitation with infants, a new and developmentally important population.