Neonatal imitation of tongue protrusion and mouth opening: Methodological aspects and evidence of early individual differences

• The present work examines imitation of mouth opening and tongue protrusion in 32 full-terminfants at three different occasions: When the infants are two to three days, three weeks. and three months old. The analysis focuses (1) on individual differences in imitative behaviour and (2) on how to operationalize the infants' responses. The overall group analysis revealed that imitation of tongue protrusion was statistically significant for both two- to three-day-old and three-week-old infants but not when the children had become three months old. Nostatistically significant effect was observed for imitation of mouth opening. Two differentimitation indexes were constructed in order to assess individual differences in early imitativebehaviour. Results show that short-term stability in imitative tendencies cxists between thefirst and second observation. The results further reveal that methodological factors must beseriously considered when studying neonatal imitation: the overall imitation found for tongueprotrusion is demonstrated to be dependent on how the infants' responses are coded.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

infants

imitation

methodology

mouth opening

tongue protrusion

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)