Gergely,G. et al . (2002) Rational imitation in preverbal infants. Nature 415, 755

1. Gergely,G. et al. (2002) Rational imitation in preverbal infants. Nature 415, 755 Meltzoff, A. N. (1988) Infant Imitation After a 1-Week Delay: Long-Term Memory for Novel Acts and Multiple Stimuli. Dev. Psychol. 24, 470–476 Strengths Rethinking results from 14 years before Meltzoff includes 2 control groups Gergely adds another group by changing an act Weaknesses Not very much detail on the repeat experiment May be overcounting head action Method 14-month-olds 36 baseline (12), adult-manipulation control (12), imitation (12) 27 hands-occupied condition (14), hands-free condition (13) Six acts dumbbell, hinge, box with button, egg, bear, box with light Confined to observing 20 seconds per act or toy First given opportunity to imitate after a 1-week delay First 20 seconds after touching the toy was all that was analyzed The egg and box with light were changed Scored by someone naive to group assignment as “yes” or “no” Leaning within 10 cm of the box with light was scored as “yes” Results “We conclude that the early imitation of goal directed actions is a selective, inferential process that involves evaluation of the rationality of the means in relation to the constraints of the situation.” Sarah Parikh 5/11/2009