Familiarity and complexity modulate the way children imitate tool-use actions: A cross-cultural study

The effects of action complexity and familiarity on preschooler's imitation performance were investigated. Thirty-two tool-use action video clips were imitated by 32 German and 32 Chinese preschoolers. Preschoolers' imitation performance was better for familiar as compared to unfamiliar actions and for simple as compared to complex actions. Furthermore, imitation errors were classified as means (action steps to reach the goal) errors and ends (action outcomes) errors. When imitating simple actions children made more means than ends errors, whereas more ends errors were made for complex actions. We explain this by the higher demands of processing complex actions on cognitive resources. This result highlights the important role of action complexity in children's representation of the means and ends of tool-use actions. Performances showed a high cross-cultural stability, which indicates that imitation is a basic learning mechanism thereby uninfluenced by cultures.