Poster #194 - The effect of partner affiliation on preschoolers' unconscious mimicry

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Social Cognition

Integrative Statement

Little is know about the developmental emergence of the relationship between social affiliation and imitation (e.g., Lakin & Chartrand, 2013), particularly unconscious mimicry. The preschool years could be revealing in this regard, since children at this age are making enormous gains in social skills and social cognition (e.g., taking others’ perspective). Unconscious mimicry in the social context is particularly interesting because it has the potential to shed light on the underpinning mechanisms humans have evolved for relating to one another. In what situations, and for what reasons, do humans see others as “like me”, in a way that creates a synchrony between self and other without the need for conscious attention, effort, or decision-making? The current project investigates the role of cooperative versus competitive context on preschoolers’ unconscious mimicry. Preschoolers first engage in a pulling task in which two partners are necessary to draw forward a box of stickers (e.g., Melis et al., 2006). In the cooperative condition this is repeatedly framed as a task that the partners to together in order to share the stickers, which they subsequently do over a series of trials. In the competitive condition, this is framed differently – here, each partner pulls in her own interest and the stickers, once obtained, are monopolized by the winner. In a subsequent task, children are instructed to trace a line over and over on the vertical face of a Plexiglas sheet, while their partner from the previous game simultaneously traces a line on the other side such that their movements overlap in visual space. On focal trials, the partner’s line “drifts” 90 degrees away from the intended trajectory; children are scored on their deviation from the instructed line-tracing task. We hypothesize that children assigned to the cooperative condition of the pulling task will show more deviation (i.e., motor contagion) in the line drawing task. Data collection is ongoing.

Authors

• Sarah Dunphy-Lelii, Bard College
  Presenting Author

• Michael Greenberg, Bard College
  Non-Presenting Author