Research Presentation

The Effect of Repetition on Infants’ Imitation From Picture Books Varying

in Iconicity

Gabrielle Simcock Early Cognitive Development Unit

School of Psychology University of Queensland

Judy S. DeLoache Department of Psychology

University of Virginia

Although picture-book reading is commonplace during infancy, little is known about the impact of this activity on learning. A previous study showed that 18- and 24-month-olds imitated a novel action sequence presented in a book that was illus- trated with realistic color photos, whereas they failed to imitate from books illus- trated with less realistic drawings. In the research reported here, we hypothesized that increasing infants’ exposure to a picture book would increase learning from books illustrated with both color photos and drawings. Independent groups of 18- and 24-month-olds were exposed to a picture book either twice in succession or 4 times in succession. The results showed that, regardless of the iconicity of the illus- trations, increasing the number of reading sessions significantly improved the in- fants’ imitation scores, compared to age-matched, no-demonstration controls. The results are discussed in relation to representational insight and cognitive flexibility.

From early in development, very young children actively participate in parent–child picture-book reading interactions, pointing to pictures (Murphy, 1978), vocalizing and verbalizing (DeLoache & DeMendoza, 1987; Murphy, 1978; Wheeler, 1983), sustaining rapt attention to the book (Cornell, Senechal, & Broda, 1988),

Infancy, 13(6), 687–697, 2008 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1525-0008 print / 1532-7078 online DOI: 10.1080/15250000802459102

Correspondence should be sent to Gabrielle Simcock, Early Cognitive Development Unit, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4072, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]

and initiating interactions (DeLoache & DeMendoza, 1987) during the reading event. More than merely providing enjoyment, picture-book reading provides an op- portunity for infants to learn new information about the world (Ganea, Pickard, & DeLoache, 2008; Simcock & DeLoache, 2006; Simcock & Dooley, 2007).

Recently, Simcock and DeLoache (2006) read 18-, 24-, and 30-month-olds a book depicting and describing the construction of a novel toy rattle. When shown a book illustrated with color photographs, all age groups subsequently reenacted the target actions to make the toy rattle. Their performance, however, varied as a func- tion of the iconicity of the illustrations: 18-month-olds failed to imitate when shown a book with color pencil drawing and 24-month-olds failed to do so with a book illustrated with black-and-white line drawings.

Before infants can extend what they learn from a book to the corresponding real-world objects, a certain level of understanding of the nature of pictures is re- quired—a fact that parents often fail to realize because the nature and use of pic- tures is so transparent to them. Mature understanding of the representational nature and conventional use of pictures is termed pictorial competence (DeLoache, 1991; DeLoache, Pierroutsakos, & Troseth, 1996). The difficulty that very young chil- dren have achieving pictorial competence is well documented (DeLoache, 1991; DeLoache & Burns, 1994; Preissler & Carey, 2004). Infants do not fully appreciate the difference between pictures and real objects until around 18 months, when they begin to label pictures, extend novel words learned from pictures to the real objects they depict, and imitate from picture books (DeLoache, Pierroutsakos, Uttal, Rosen- gren, & Gottlieb, 1988; Ganea et al., 2008; Murphy, 1978; Preissler & Carey, 2004; Simcock & DeLoache, 2006). The symbolic understanding of pictures continues to develop over the next several years (Callaghan, 2000; DeLoache, 1991; DeLoache & Burns, 1994; DeLoache et al., 1996; Suddendorf, 2003).

Understanding and using pictures as symbols may be challenging for infants, as all depictions are degraded relative to their referents (Ittelson, 1996); there is al- ways less perceptual information in a picture than in the real object or scene it de- picts. For example, pictures are smaller and contain fewer depth and no motion cues in comparison to real objects and events. Consequently, a relatively impover- ished memory representation is formed from a perceptually degraded 2D image compared to 3D input (Barr & Hayne, 1999; Johnson, 1997, 2000; Schmitt & An- derson, 2002).

It is, however, often important to extend 2D representations to their 3D referents (Barr, Muentener, & Garcia, 2007; Barr, Muentener, Garcia, Fujimoto, & Chavez, 2007). Research has shown that doing so depends on the degree to which the de- picted objects match the real objects (Barr & Hayne, 1999; Hayne, 2004; Hayne, Herbert, & Simcock, 2003; Schmitt & Anderson, 2002; Simcock & DeLoache, 2006). For example, retrieval is superior if the encoded attributes closely match the test cues and, inversely, retrieval is inferior if there is a discrepancy between the memory representation and the test cues (Hayne, Barr, & Herbert, 2003; Hayne, MacDonald, & Barr, 1997; Herbert & Hayne, 2000a).

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To the extent that a relatively impoverished memory representation contributes to infants’ difficulty using pictures symbolically, repeated exposure should im- prove their exploitation of pictorial information. Repetition occurs naturally in ev- eryday picture-book reading; many young children beg their parents to read their favorite books over and over (Fletcher & Reese, 2005; Sulzby, 1985; Sulzby & Teale, 1987). Repeated readings of picture books have been shown to increase tod- dlers’ participation in reading interactions (Morrow, 1988; Sulzby, McCabe- Branz, & Buhle, 1993), attention to the story (Martinez & Roser, 1985), spontane- ous labelling of pictures (Fletcher & Jean-Francois, 1998), and vocabulary skills (Ninio, 1983; Snow & Goldfield, 1983). Furthermore, with repeated readings, tod- dlers’ focus shifts from simply labelling pictures in a book to commenting on and asking questions about story content (Martinez & Roser, 1985; Morrow, 1988; Sulzby, 1985; Sulzby & Teale, 1987; Yadden, 1988).

Prior research exploring the effects of repetition on imitation has established that increasing the number of live demonstrations increases imitation performance and long-term recall in 6-month-old infants (Barr, Dowden, & Hayne, 1996; Barr, Rovee-Collier, & Campanella, 2005). Moreover, doubling 12- to 21-month-olds’ exposure to a video demonstration increases infants’ imitative performance from television to levels equivalent to those obtained after a live demonstration (Barr, Muentener, & Garcia, 2007; Barr, Muentener, Garcia, et al., 2007). The timing of the additional exposure also has an impact on learning; the beneficial effects of repetition are most likely to occur soon after initial learning when the memory rep- resentation is strongest (Barr et al., 1996; Barr et al., 2005).

In this study, we examined the effect of repeated readings of a picture book on 18- and 24-month-olds’ imitation of a novel action sequence presented in books varying in iconicity. One group of infants experienced two readings (2x) of the pic- ture book (as in Simcock & DeLoache, 2006), and another experienced four read- ings (4x). The books were illustrated with highly realistic color photos or less real- istic drawings (color pictures for the 18-month-olds and black and white line drawings for the 24-month-olds, based on results from Simcock & DeLoache, 2006). We expected that the degree of imitation would be affected both by level of exposure to the book and iconicity of the illustrations.

Two other age-matched groups also participated. To assess the extent to which the children might perform the target actions by chance, control infants received no book exposure. To compare learning from the book reading versus direct experi- ence, additional groups of infants saw the action sequence live.

METHOD

Participants

There were 60 full-term typically developing 18-month-olds (M = 18.38 months, SD = 0.42; 32 girls and 28 boys) and 60 24-month-olds (M = 24.17 months, SD =

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0.52; 33 girls and 27 boys). The participants were primarily White, English-speak- ing Australians from middle-class families living in the suburbs of Brisbane. They were recruited by letter of invitation to parents from a database of birth announce- ments in local newspapers and word-of-mouth referrals. Six additional infants were excluded for fussiness. Ten children at each age, approximately half of them girls, were randomly assigned to the photo 2x, photo 4x, drawing 2x, drawing 4x, control, or live imitation conditions.

Materials

Three versions of a picture book depicting and describing a child constructing a toy rattle in a three-step action sequence were used (see Simcock & DeLoache, 2006). The pictures in each version of the book varied in iconicity: color photographs, col- ored pencil drawings, and black-and-white line drawings. Each book of consisted of six laminated pages (15 cm × 10 cm) bound with a cover. The pictures in the books depicted close-up shots of a child’s upper torso and the target objects on a table in front of her as she constructed a toy rattle. Each picture and the accompanying text appeared individually on the right side of the book facing a blank page.

The toy rattle stimuli (Herbert & Hayne, 2000a, 2000b; Simcock & DeLoache, 2006) consisted of three objects: a green wooden ball (3 cm × 2.5 cm), a green wooden stick (12.5 cm long) attached to a white plastic lid (9.5 cm in diameter), and a clear plastic jar (8 cm × 5.5 cm) with a rubber diaphragm occluding the open- ing. The ball could be pushed into the jar through the rubber diaphragm. The top of the jar and bottom of the lid attached together with Velcro.

Procedure

Demonstration phase. The experimenter engaged the infant in free play to build rapport and during this time asked the parent to refrain from interacting with his or her infant during the study. After the warmup, the caregiver, infant, and ex- perimenter sat together on a large floor pillow in a lab playroom. In the pic- ture-book conditions the experimenter read the book aloud to the infant twice in succession, interacting with the infant in a naturalistic manner and pointing to each picture. The rattle was not visible during the reading session.

For the infants in the photo 2x and drawing 2x conditions, the test phase began immediately after the reading session. The infants in the photo 4x and drawing 4x conditions were taken next door for an 8- to 10-min free play break before return- ing to the lab for the second set of picture-book readings, which were identical to the first set. (The play break ensured that the infants would maintain their attention to the book across all four readings.)

In the live imitation condition, the experimenter removed the three compo- nents of the rattle from within a box and placed them on the floor out of the in-

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fant’s reach. Saying “I can use these things to make a rattle,” she proceeded to construct the rattle twice in succession. The experimenter narrated the three-step action sequence during each part of the demonstration: (a) “I can push the ball into the jar”; (b) “I can put the stick onto the jar; and (c) “I can shake the stick to make a noise.”

Test phase. For all conditions (including the controls), the experimenter placed the three rattle components on the floor in front of the infant, saying, “You can use these things to make a rattle; show me how to make a rattle.” The experi- menter repeated this prompt once during the 60-sec test phase and gave positive feedback (e.g., “Good job!”) regardless of what the infant did with the objects. The experimenter never referred to the demonstration during the test phase.

Coding and Reliability

The sessions were videotaped for later coding. The test phase was coded for pro- duction of each of the three target actions necessary to construct the rattle: (a) put the ball in the jar, (b) put the lid on the jar, and (c) shake the stick. As in prior imita- tion studies, the infants were given 60 sec from when they first touched the stimuli to perform the target actions, and the actions could be produced in any order. A second coder provided interobserver reliability for one third of the sample: 92% (Cohen’s κ = .81). All discrepancies between the coders were resolved while re- viewing the video again.

RESULTS

As initial analyses indicated no significant main effect or interactions involving gender, it was excluded from the analyses. Of primary interest was the infant’s pro- duction of the target actions as an index of learning from the demonstration in comparison to the control condition. The infant’s imitation scores were subjected to a 2 (age: 18 months, 24 months) × 6 (condition: photo 2x, drawing 2x, photo 4x, drawing 4x, live imitation, control) analysis of variance (ANOVA) with follow-up Student Newman–Kuels tests (SNK; all ps < .05). As shown in Figure 1, the 24-month-olds (M = 1.77) produced more target actions than did the 18-month- olds (M = 1.40). The main effect of age was significant, F(1, 108) = 7.49, p < .01, η2 = .07, but there was no significant Age × Condition interaction, F(5, 108) = .69, ns. Of most importance, there was a significant main effect of condition, F(5, 108) = 24.15, p < .001, η2 = .53.

The SNK post hoc analyses revealed that, as expected, the infants in the live im- itation group (M = 2.70) produced the most target actions and the infants in the control group (M = 0.60) produced the least. These results establish that 18- and

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24-month-olds are capable of learning the target actions from a live model, but rarely produce these actions spontaneously.

Most important for the purposes of this study, the post hoc test also revealed a positive effect of repetition on imitation from the books. The infants who saw the book four times produced significantly more target actions (photo 4x, M = 2.20; drawing 4x, M = 1.75) than those who saw the book twice (photo 2x, M = 1.45; Drawing 2x, M = 0.80). Moreover the infants in both photo groups performed sig- nificantly better than those in the control group, indicating that they had learned from the book. In contrast, those who saw the book illustrated with drawings twice did not outperform the controls, showing that with this level of exposure they did not learn from the book. With doubled exposure to the book with drawings, how- ever, both age groups imitated the actions. The infants in the live imitation condi- tion outperformed the infants in all picture-book conditions, indicating that imita- tion from a book is more difficult than imitating from a live model.

The SNK test also revealed no significant difference between the performance of the infants in the photo 2x (M = 1.45) and drawing 4x (M = 1.75) conditions, show- ing that more exposure was required to learn from books illustrated with drawings than from books with realistic color photos. Moreover, with greater exposure to the

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FIGURE 1 Mean imitation scores (+ 1 SE) from books illustrated with color photographs or drawings (color pictures for the 18-month-olds and line drawings for the 24-month-olds) pre- sented as a function of age and condition. Comparisons can be made with age-matched control groups and live imitation groups.

books illustrated with drawings (drawing 4x, M = 1.75), the infants’ performance was equivalent to that obtained with four readings of the photo book (M = 2.20).

Finally, we ensured that the significant effects were not due to differences in the infant’s attention to the book. To assess attention, the experimenter timed from video the duration that the infant’s eye gaze was directed toward the book during the demonstration. The total amount of time that each infant was judged to be at- tending to the book as the experimenter read was divided by the total duration of the reading session to give a proportion of looking time. As shown in Table 1, the infants were extremely attentive to the book reading. A 2 (age) × 4 (condition: photo 2x, photo 4x, drawing 2x, drawing 4x) ANOVA yielded no significant main effects of age, F(1, 71) = .29, ns, or condition, F(3, 71) = .58, ns, and no interaction, F(3, 71) = .56, ns. Thus, regardless of age or condition, the infants attended closely to the book as the experimenter read.

DISCUSSION

In the research reported here, we examined the effects of repetition on 18- and 24-month-olds’ imitation from picture books that varied in level of iconicity. The results showed that imitation by both age groups was significantly higher after four readings of the book than after only two readings. The positive effect of repetition was evident with highly realistic color photos from which the infants imitated after only two exposures, as well as with simple drawings from which infants imitated only after four exposures.

These results are consistent with prior research showing that pictorial compe- tence emerges around 18 months, when infants increasingly point to and label pic- tures in books (DeLoache et al., 1998) and can extend a novel word learned for a picture in a book to its real-world exemplar (Ganea et al., 2008; Preissler &

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TABLE 1 The Proportion of Time That the Children Attended to the Picture Book

as a Function of Age and Condition

Age Group

18 Months 24 Months

Condition M SD M SD

Photo 2x .89 .02 .91 .02 Photo 4x .89 .02 .93 .02 Drawing 2x .90 .03 .87 .03 Drawing 4x .88 .03 .88 .03

Carey, 2004). As shown here, and consistent with our prior research (Simcock & DeLoache, 2006), around this age infants also begin to extract information about a novel action sequence depicted and described in a picture book and can use it to construct a novel toy rattle.

However, various factors clearly affect infants’ emerging ability to use pictures in a mature and conventional way. One factor that affects infants’ ability to under- stand the nature of pictures is their iconicity. Young infants manually explore highly realistic depictions more than less realistic ones (DeLoache et al., 1998; Pierroutsakos & DeLoache, 2003). Similarly, 18- to 30-month-olds imitate more from a picture book illustrated with color photos than from drawings, showing that it is easier to relate highly realistic pictures to their real-world referents (Simcock & DeLoache, 2006).

Another factor influencing early representational insight is experience with symbols. For example, transfer studies have shown that prior experience using a televised symbol as a source of information about a real event subsequently in- creased young children’s ability to use a picture symbolically (Troseth, 2003b). Recent studies have also shown that additional experience (i.e., double the expo- sure) with a televised model increased infants’ imitative behavior (Barr et al., 1996; Barr, Muentener, Garcia, et al., 2007; Barr et al., 2005). Similarly, this study showed that increased encoding experience with pictorial information facilitated infants’ use of the symbolic information for imitation. Moreover, repetition en- hanced imitation from books illustrated with pictures of relatively low iconicity.

Why might iconicity and repetition affect infants’ ability to use pictures sym- bolically? The results reported here support the notion that 2D depictions are pro- cessed more slowly than 3D objects (Barr, Muentener, Garcia, et al., 2007; Carver, Meltzoff, & Dawson, 2006; Johnson, 1997, 2000), and result in an impoverished memory representation in comparison to information encoded from a 3D source (Barr & Hayne, 1999; Schmitt & Anderson, 2002). The more degraded the picture, as with images of low iconicity that lack color and depth cues, the more impover- ished the resulting memory representation. Extended encoding opportunities via repetition, however, increase the attributes stored with the memory representation, resulting in a stronger, more complete memory representation. In turn, the memory representation that has more attributes in common with the 3D referent results in a better match to the real test objects used to cue retrieval of the target information (Hayne, 2004; Simcock & DeLoache, 2006).

Although repetition of the reading session clearly improved infants’ imitation scores, their performance was still inferior to those who saw a live demonstration. The difficulty young children have learning from media sources in comparison to direct experience has been well documented, initially from video (Anderson & Pempek, 2005; Barr & Hayne, 1999; DeLoache & Chiong, in press; Hayne, Her- bert, & Simcock, 2003; Troseth, 2003a; Troseth & DeLoache, 1998) and recently from picture books (Simcock & DeLoache, 2006; Simcock & Dooley, 2007).

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These results provide further empirical support for the widely held assumption by parents that their infants can learn new information from picture-book reading interactions. It is clear that repetition substantially increased the infants’ ability to extend depicted information to the corresponding real-world objects, especially with respect to drawings. Past research and anecdotal reports indicate that repeti- tion characterizes young children’s early book reading interactions—they often adopt a favorite book and request that it be read to them over and over again. Sev- eral beneficial effects of repeated picture-book reading of favorite books have been documented (Fletcher & Jean-Francois, 1998; Martinez & Roser, 1985; Morrow, 1988; Ninio, 1983; Snow & Goldfield, 1983; Sulzby, 1985; Sulzby & Teale, 1991; Yadden, 1988). The current research provides experimental documentation that repetition enhances infants’ learning from picture-book reading interactions.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was supported by a University of Queensland Early Career Re- searcher Grant to Gabrielle Simcock and National Institutes of Health Grant 25271 to Judy S. DeLoache. We would like to thank the families that participated in this research and Crystal Crawford for her assistance with data collection and coding.

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