動作熟悉性影響嬰兒優先模仿目標

Familiarity of Actions Leads Infants to Privilege Goals in Their Imitation of Others’ Acts

在觀察學習他人的動作時，為了優先達成動作結果，嬰兒常忽略動作形式，此種傾向被視為嬰兒解讀他人的動作為目標導向。近期研究指出嬰兒對不同動作目標的知覺仰賴自身動作經驗，本研究進一步探討動作熟悉性是否影響嬰兒模仿他人時以目標為優先的傾向。18 個月的嬰兒觀看實驗者以熟悉的兩點直線路徑或新奇的轉彎路徑，透過跳躍或滑行的動作風格，將玩偶移動至前方（無盒子情境）或放入兩個盒子其中之一（有盒子情境）。整體而言，在有盒子情境，比起動作風格，嬰兒較常模仿實驗者放入玩偶的盒子，而在無盒子情境，模仿偏好正好相反。進一步分析在所有選擇盒子的嘗試中，嬰兒與實驗者選擇相同盒子的次數是否大於隨機，結果顯示只有在實驗一顯著偏好實驗者的目標，在實驗二只是隨機選擇眼前的盒子，表示優先模仿示範者的目標受到動作熟悉性影響。本研究發現為直接配對理論提供支持的證據，在模仿過程中嬰兒將他人的動作轉化為自身的身體動作模式，因為熟悉動作是嬰兒勝任的動作，在觀看過程可直接對應至動作經驗，更有效地確認目標所在。

"During observational learning of goal-directed action, infants tend to simplify the form of action to ensure that the goal is copied. As recent findings suggest that infants’ sensitivity to the goal structure of action is reliant on their own experience with particular actions, the present study further examines whether the precedence of goal in infants’ imitation is susceptible to the familiarity of the presented action. Eighteen-month-old infants observed an adult hop or slide a toy animal into one of two boxes (box condition) or to a final location (no-box condition). The toy moved along either a straight-line path familiar to infants (Experiment 1) or a novel turning-line path (Experiment 2). Overall, in the box condition, infants were more likely to copy the goal box while ignoring the hopping and sliding motion; in the nobox condition, they produced the opposite pattern of imitation. However, further analyses of the tendency to put the toy into boxes showed that infants’ choice of the adult’s goal was significantly higher than chance only in Experiment 1, suggesting that familiar actions determines whether infants privilege goals in their imitation of others’ acts. To identify the goal of an agent’s action requires not only the perceivable outcome, but it also requires a perception-action transduction that transfers observed acts into infants’ own motor patterns. Familiar actions that infants are able to perform directly activate the equivalent body movements in their own motor repertoire. The results are consistent with the notion of direct mapping, suggesting that infants gain insight into goals through action experiences."