TY - JOUR A1 - Pfeifer, Caroline A1 - Elsner, Birgit T1 - Preschoolers' encoding of rational actions - the role of task features and verbal information JF - Journal of experimental child psychology N2 - In the current study, we first investigated whether preschoolers imitate selectively across three imitation tasks. Second, we examined whether preschoolers' selective imitation is influenced by differences in the modeled actions and/or by the situational context. Finally, we investigated how verbal cues given by the model affect preschoolers' imitation. Participants (3- to 5-year-olds) watched an adult performing an unusual action in three imitation tasks (touch light, house, and obstacle). In two conditions, the model either was or was not restricted by situational constraints. In addition, the model verbalized either the goal that was to be achieved, the movement, or none of the action components. Preschoolers always acted on the objects without constraints. Results revealed differences in preschoolers' selective imitation across the tasks. In the house task, they showed the selective imitation pattern that has been interpreted as rational, imitating the unusual action more often in the no-constraint condition than in the constraint condition. In contrast, in the touch light task, preschoolers imitated the unusual head touch irrespective of the model's constraints or of the verbal cues that had been presented. Finally, in the obstacle task, children mostly emulated the observed goal irrespective of the presence of the constraint, but they increased their imitation of the unusual action when the movement had been emphasized. Overall, our data suggest that preschoolers adjust their imitative behavior to context-specific information about objects, actions, and their interpretations of the model's intention to teach something. KW - Rational imitation tasks KW - Ostensive communication KW - Verbal cues KW - Preschoolers KW - Context-specific task features KW - Social cognition Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2012.12.005 SN - 0022-0965 SN - 1096-0457 VL - 116 IS - 2 SP - 532 EP - 544 PB - Elsevier CY - San Diego ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Elsner, Birgit A1 - Pfeifer, Caroline T1 - Movement or goal Goal salience and verbal cues affect preschoolers' imitation of action components JF - Journal of experimental child psychology N2 - The impact of goal salience and verbal cues given by the model on 3- to 5-year-olds' reproduction of action components (movement or goal) was investigated in an imitation choice task. Preschoolers watched an experimenter moving a puppet up or down a ramp, terminating at one of two target objects. The target objects were either differently colored plastic bowls (low-salient group) or sociofunctionally relevant objects (high-salient group). While demonstrating the action in several trials, the model verbalized either the movement, the goal, both the movement and the goal, or none of the components. Children imitated the action on a second ramp with reversed positions of the target objects, so they needed to decide whether to reproduce the observed movement or the observed end state. In the high-salient group, preschoolers preferentially imitated the goal component, whereas in the low-salient group, they did not show a preference for one of the components. Across trials, preschoolers preferentially imitated the goal when this component or both components were verbalized, whereas they showed no preference when the movement or none of the components was emphasized. Yet, verbal cues seemed to have stronger effects in the low-salient condition. We conclude that sociofunctional salience of action goals and communicative cues of the model affect young children's representation of observed actions, leading to a selective reproduction of those action components that are relevant to the child. KW - Imitation KW - Verbal cues KW - Goal salience KW - Preschoolers KW - Early social cognition KW - Action representation Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2012.02.010 SN - 0022-0965 VL - 112 IS - 3 SP - 283 EP - 295 PB - Elsevier CY - San Diego ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schaan, Luca A1 - Schulz, Andre A1 - Nuraydin, Sevim A1 - Bergert, Cora A1 - Hilger, Annett A1 - Rach, Hannah A1 - Hechler, Tanja T1 - Interoceptive accuracy, emotion recognition, and emotion regulation in preschool children JF - International journal of psychophysiology N2 - Little is known about the conscious experience of internal bodily sensations in preschool-aged children. Given that preschoolers are in the most rapid phase of brain development, and display profound emotional development, it was the aim of the present study to establish an adapted interoceptive accuracy paradigm and to investigate associations between sociodemographic (age, sex) and emotional variables with interoceptive accuracy. Forty-nine children (aged 4–6 years) completed the jumping jack paradigm (JJP), a heartbeat tracking paradigm, which includes a noninvasive physical perturbation via performing jumping jacks for 10 s. An interoceptive accuracy score was based on the comparison between self-reported and objectively recorded heart rate prior to and after completion of jumping jacks. Children also completed validated measures for emotion recognition and emotion regulation. Children's objectively recorded heart rate significantly increased after the JJP by 20 bpm on average. There was a positive relationship between reactivity on self-reported heart rate and objectively recorded heart rate increase. The derived scores for interoceptive accuracy increased with age, suggesting older children to report more self-reported heart rate change than objectively recorded, but were unrelated to children's sex or BMI. While emotion recognition and regulation significantly increased with age, the interoceptive accuracy score was unrelated to emotion recognition, but marginally associated to emotion regulation. Children with higher interoceptive accuracy score (i.e., self-reporting more heart rate change than objectively recorded) received lower emotion regulation score. The present study is the first to depict a novel behavioral paradigm to assess interoceptive accuracy in preschool-aged children. KW - Interoception KW - Preschoolers KW - Interoceptive accuracy KW - Emotion recognition KW - Emotion regulation Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2019.02.001 SN - 0167-8760 SN - 1872-7697 VL - 138 SP - 47 EP - 56 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -