% pubman genre = article
@article{item_3398216,
title = {{Children over{-}imitate adults and peers more than puppets}},
author = {Stengelin, Roman and Ball, Rabea and Maurits, Luke and Kanngiesser, Patricia and Haun, Daniel Benjamin Moritz},
language = {eng},
issn = {1363-755X; 1467-7687},
doi = {10.1111/desc.13303},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-03},
abstract = {{Researchers commonly use puppets in development science. Amongst other things,{\textless}br{\textgreater}puppets are employed to reduce social hierarchies between child participants and{\textless}br{\textgreater}adult experimenters akin to peer interactions. However, it remains controversial{\textless}br{\textgreater}whether children treat puppets like real-world social partners in these settings.{\textless}br{\textgreater}This study investigated children{\textquoteright}s imitation of causally irrelevant actions (i.e., over-{\textless}br{\textgreater}imitation) performed by puppet, adult, or child models. Seventy-two German children{\textless}br{\textgreater}(AgeRange {\textequals}4.6{\textendash}6.5 years; 36 girls) from urban, socioeconomically diverse backgrounds{\textless}br{\textgreater}observed a model retrieving stickers from reward containers. The model performed{\textless}br{\textgreater}causally irrelevant actions either in contact with the reward container or not. Children{\textless}br{\textgreater}were more likely to over-imitate adults{\textquoteright} and peers{\textquoteright} actions as compared to puppets{\textquoteright}{\textless}br{\textgreater}actions. Across models, they copied contact actions more than no-contact actions.{\textless}br{\textgreater}While children imitate causally irrelevant actions from puppet models to some extent,{\textless}br{\textgreater}their social learning from puppets does not necessarily match their social learning from{\textless}br{\textgreater}real-world social agents, such as children or adults.}},
journal = {{Developmental Science}},
volume = {26},
number = {2},
eid = {e13303},
}