Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-92). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-92). Also available on the Internet.

Across two experiments I sought to determine the relation between the Imitation developmental cusp and the emulative echoic cusp in preschoolers classified with a learning disability. In Experiment I, the participants were 36 preschoolers selected via a convenience sample, where the goal was to test for relations between the preverbal developmental cusp and foundational learning capability of Imitation, the preverbal and emulative verbal developmental cusps in the participant’s repertoire, and the reinforcement value of age-appropriate toys and activities. Results showed significant correlations between Imitation and conditioned reinforcement for observing adult faces and voices, parroting, echoics, and listener literacy, as well as significant relations between Imitation and conditioned reinforcement for playing with toys, puzzles, coloring materials, and Play-Doh. Findings show that Imitation is either a prerequisite or a corequisite to emulative verbal developmental cusps. Experiment II had two goals. The first was to determine whether educationally classified preschoolers with a disability can emit various imitative responses when the researcher presents instruction through a smart device using the mirror training protocol. The second was to determine whether the echoic behavior and observing responses of the participants would change as a result of undergoing the synchronous mirror training protocol. Results show a functional relation between the acquisition of the verbal foundational Imitation cusp and increases in emission of various imitative responses and emulative echoic responses, across both in-person and virtual conditions.

Two testing conditions (immediate and delayed) were used to test for the presence of imitation and emulation in typically developing and developmentally delayed children, including children with autism spectrum disorder, ranging in age from 2.8-years old and 4.0-years old, in two experiments, Experiment I (n=20), Experiment II (n=30). Using a mixed within-between design, I compared the performance of the two groups across various tasks in two testing conditions and analyzed their performance. The participants were selected because they fit the criteria of 1) being between the age of 2.5 and 4 years of age at the onset of the study, 2) had gross motor and generalized imitation in repertoire, and 3) observational learning was present. The independent variable was the test interval in both experiments across both testing conditions, immediate and delayed. The dependent variables were the unconsequated responses during the test interval (Experiment I and II). The embedded dependent variable in Experiment II was the number of 5s intervals participants interacted with a puzzle box in the free play setting. Responses were defined as imitation (copy the specific actions with point-to-point correspondence), or emulation (bring about the model’s goal by the observer’s own methods and means, no point-to-point correspondence but same end result). In the first experiment I found that although typically developing preschoolers often imitate in the short term, they were more likely to emulate in the long term when not shown again how to use the items. In contrast the participants with autism spectrum disorder were more likely to imitate across both testing conditions. My findings support evidence that typically developing children naturally shift from imitation to emulation and that children are in fact emulators in contrast to research that suggests otherwise. For those children with autism, Experiment I, supports evidence that they are potentially missing a developmental cusp (emulation). Experiment II sought to replicate the findings in Experiment I and differed in that 1) more tasks were added, 2) more participants were used, and 2) a free play observation session was added. The results from Experiment II supported the results from Experiment I, in that, all participants (typically developing and those with autism) were more likely to imitate in the short-term immediate testing condition; however, typically developing children naturally shifted to an emulative response given a delay, whereas, those children with autism continued to emit imitative behaviors given a delay, signifying that children with autism are missing the developmental cusp of emulation. The findings support the notion that emulation is a developmental cusp and that children with autism often are missing this developmental cusp.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Psychology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-93).

The following thesis examines factors that affect children’s imitation, and presents evidence that imitation is a composite ability which involves multiple mechanisms developing throughout childhood. In Chapter 1 previous findings are reviewed to highlight the mechanisms underlying the ability to reproduce other people’s actions. The evidence suggests that imitation, whilst based on basic action control mechanisms in infancy, is also affected by higher-order cognitive processes in later childhood. Previous literature is still unclear on how the influence of such processes changes at different ages. Chapter 2 used a successive-models task with children aged 2 to 12 years to reveal how children’s imitation changes with age. Results showed that whilst children under the age of 5 years did not imitate deviant models as much as the first model, children above the age of 6 years begin to copy multiple models faithfully, particularly after the age of 10 years. Chapter 3 investigated the role of multiple factors that may have made children under the age of 5 years imitate deviant models less than the original model. In particular, it was found that model evaluations, object associations, and motor inhibitory skills all affect children’s imitation of multiple models. These findings support the interpretation that imitation requires different abilities depending on the type of action that is being imitated. Chapter 4 shows that children’s imitation also depends on the type of goal that they associate with the action. By pre-school age children will imitate actions faithfully if they believe that the goal of the action was the movement itself. The results of the thesis support the idea that imitation, while involving general processes of action control, is also affected in a top-down manner by higher-order cognitive abilities after infancy.

A longitudinal study of infants and their mothers was conducted to explore the development of imitation and approximations to imitation. During a 10-minute unstructured play session, researchers observed two mother-infant dyads once per week for twelve weeks, while they played at home. The data presented represents infants between the ages 5 and 34 weeks. The methodology employed was based on the methods described by Hart and Rilsey (1999). Observations were coded based on the topography of the mother's and infant's behavior and included vocalizations, facial movements, motor movements, and object manipulation. The data are analyzed and discussed in terms of its relevance to autism intervention.