The effects of experimenter habituation and trial and error experiences on emulation in typically developing toddlers

I tested for the presence of emulation in typically developing toddlers. I also set out to determine whether incidental learning as "trial and error" manipulations of experimental apparatuses would induce emulation in the children who had not demonstrated emulation. Using a comparison design to compare the performance of two groups, in Experiment 1 I analyzed the performance of typically developing 2-year-olds (ages 24--36 months) who were habituated to the experimenter prior to being tested for emulation with those who were not habituated to the experimenter prior to testing. The results demonstrated that habituated 2-year-olds emulated, while non-habituated 2-year-olds did not. Based on these findings, I recruited new participants (ages 18--23 months) who I habituated to me and tested them for emulation. Those (eight experimental participants and eight control participants) not demonstrating emulation received a "trial and error" treatment package. Using a time-lagged experimental-control with a nested single case multiple probe design across participants, I compared experimental and control groups while controlling for maturation to determine the presence of emulation and the effectiveness of a trial and error treatment package. Results demonstrated that the trial and error treatment package successfully induced emulation in experimental participants while the control participants (who had not received the treatment package) still did not emulate. After the experimental participants learned to emulate, the control participants were also given the trial and error treatment package, which induced emulation in them as well.;Key words: Imitation, Emulation, Developmental Cusps...