Psychology of Child's Imitation (Experimental-Psychological Research) (part 2)

The presented article proceeds with the publication of the early work of L.I. Bozhovich and L.S. Slavina. Imitation is discussed in the context of the higher mental functions and it is correlated with the problem of will. Two experimental research of imitation are presented. The first research deals with investigation of the imitation ability (it is illustrated by the example of the adults with aphasia). The second one concerns the development of imitation in childhood. The pair method is used for the analysis of imitation. An existence of three stages in imitation development is theoretically justified. The first stage of imitation — the spontaneous one is discussed on the basis of considerable amount of empirical data.