Demonstration of action with a new object to a child: information about the device or about the method of its use?

This study examines the role of social learning in the formation of the elementary concepts of objects and methods of action with them in children. The analysis of influence of adult’s manipulative activity of an with new object, observed by a child, on his further actions regarding the same subject in the conditions of formation of the child’s over imitation behavior was the main task of this research. The study involved 39 children aged from 4 to 6 years. According to the conditions of the experiment, the subjects were divided into experimental and control groups: in the experimental group experimenter performed a new set of actions with the stimulus object in its re-presentation; in the control group experimenter did not performed any changes in the action with the stimulus object. The results suggest that subjects of the experimental group played back a new set of actions of experimenter, while in the control group of subjects such reproduction was not observed. On the basis of the received data we can conclude that the behavior of the adult regarding to a new object is primarily a social factor contributing to the formation of the child’s views and concepts of objects - convention about the method of their application, not only the situation of observation of transformation of a new object occurring in connection with the actions of an adult.

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