Fun or Function:What motivates preschoolers to overimitate in playful vs. instrumental task settings?

乐趣或功能：是什么促使学龄前儿童在有趣的任务设置和工具性任务设置中过度模仿？

• 批准号: 418888053
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Sabina Pauen
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Entwicklungspsychologie und Biologische Psychologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2018-12-31 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/418888053?language=en
• 关键词: Fun; Function; What; motivates; preschoolers

Young children acquire many cultural skills via observing and imitating others. They copy even actions that are clearly not relevant to attain a given goal, a phenomenon called overimitation (OI). Different motivations guiding children imitation behavior have been suggested in the literature: If children imitate actions to accomplish a given task they act based on an instrumental motivation. If they try to affiliate with the model or follow social norms/conventions, they do so based on a social motivation. Recently, Schleihauf (2018) suggested a third possibility: If children imitate because they enjoy the demonstrated actions, they actions may be based on an entertainment motivation. Studies on the impact of the entertainment motivation are still missing, however. The present project will fill this gap by conducting three related studies following the same general paradigm: 5-year-olds will be asked to retrieve a coin from a box with a transparent lid. A model demonstrates a range of inefficient actions (e.g. knocking on the lid, pulling on a knob) before showing the efficient actions (i.e. lifting the lid and reaching inside the box to grab the coin). Then it is the child’s turn to get a coin however she likes. A baseline study without demonstration (Study 1; N = 32) assesses how often children show each target action spontaneously. It serves to identify over-imitation in further studies. Study 2 (N = 128) manipulates children’s motivation via priming activities and the mode of demonstration. First, the experimenter engages the child in either an entertaining or an instrumental activity (imaginative play vs. sorting things). In the following imitation task the critical actions are demonstrated either in an entertaining mode (i.e. to safe a pirate treasure), or in an instrumental mode (i.e. to solve a task). Study 3 (N = 128) varies the age of the model (peer or adult) and explores the role of children’s dispositional playfulness using a newly developed questionnaire. We expect that the motivation guiding children’s behavior during the imitation-test are affected by the situational framing provided. An entertaining primary activity and mode of demonstration are more likely to support over-imitation than an instrumental primary activity and mode of presentation. Furthermore, we expect that a child-model is more likely to increase over-imitation in an entertaining context whereas an adult-model is more likely to reduce over-imitation in an instrumental context. Finally, the role of dispositional playfulness for predicting over-imitation in different conditions will be explored. The present project shall help to shed first light on the role of the entertainment motivation for explaining over-imitation in preschoolers and to specify person-related and situation-related conditions triggering this kind of motivation in children.

幼儿通过观察和模仿他人获得许多文化技能。他们甚至会模仿那些显然与达到既定目标无关的行为，这种现象被称为过度模仿（OI）。不同的动机引导儿童模仿行为已经在文献中提出：如果儿童模仿动作来完成给定的任务，他们的行为基于工具性动机。如果他们试图加入模型或遵循社会规范/惯例，他们这样做是基于社会动机。最近，Schleihauf（2018）提出了第三种可能性：如果儿童模仿是因为他们喜欢被展示的动作，那么他们的行为可能是基于娱乐动机。然而，关于娱乐动机的影响的研究仍然缺失。本项目将填补这一空白，进行三个相关的研究，遵循相同的一般范式：5岁的孩子将被要求从一个透明的盖子盒子里取出一枚硬币。一个模型演示了一系列低效的动作（例如敲盖子，拉旋钮），然后显示了有效的动作（即提起盖子，把手伸进盒子里抓住硬币）。然后轮到孩子拿硬币了，她喜欢什么就拿什么。一项没有演示的基线研究（研究1; N = 32）评估了儿童自发显示每个目标动作的频率。它有助于在进一步的研究中识别过度模仿。研究二（N = 128）通过启动活动和示范模式来操纵儿童的学习动机。首先，实验者让孩子参与娱乐性或工具性的活动（想象性游戏与分类）。在下面的模仿任务中，关键动作以娱乐模式（即保护海盗宝藏）或工具模式（即解决任务）进行演示。研究3（N = 128）不同年龄的模型（同龄人或成人），并探讨了儿童的性格游戏使用一个新开发的问卷的作用。我们预期，引导儿童在模仿测试中行为的动机会受到情境框架的影响。娱乐性的基本活动和演示模式比工具性的基本活动和演示模式更容易支持过度模仿。此外，我们预计，一个儿童模型更有可能增加过度模仿在一个娱乐性的背景下，而一个成人模型更有可能减少过度模仿在一个工具性的背景下。最后，我们将探讨在不同情境下，性格性玩兴对过度模仿的预测作用。本项目将有助于阐明解释学龄前儿童过度模仿的娱乐动机的作用，并详细说明触发儿童这种动机的与人相关和与情境相关的条件。