Imitation of peers in children and adults

Imitation of the successful choices of others is a simple and superficially attractive learning rule. It has been shown to be an important driving force for the strategic behavior of (young) adults. In this study we examine whether imitation is prevalent in the behavior of children aged between 8 an...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Apesteguía, José, Huck, Steffen, Oechssler, Jörg, Weidenholzer, Elke, Weidenholzer, Simon
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositorio:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/44846
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/44846
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/g9010011
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Children
Imitation learning
Success-based imitation
Peer imitation
Descripción
Sumario:Imitation of the successful choices of others is a simple and superficially attractive learning rule. It has been shown to be an important driving force for the strategic behavior of (young) adults. In this study we examine whether imitation is prevalent in the behavior of children aged between 8 and 10. Surprisingly, we find that imitation seems to be cognitively demanding. Most children in this age group ignore information about others, foregoing substantial learning opportunities. While this seems to contradict much of the literature in the field of psychology, we argue that success-based imitation of peers may be harder for children to perform than non-success-based imitation of adults.