Lazhar Labiadh
UFR-STAPS, France
Title: Which relevant information do preschoolers and scholars perceive and select for imitating a series of walking movements
Biography
Biography: Lazhar Labiadh
Abstract
Imitation is commonly considered as a hierarchically organized mechanism. It is frequently used to explore various scientific fields, but few works have studied how locomotion movements are imitated. The current study aims to investigate and expand the findings regarding which information children of different age groups select and integrate for performing a series of locomotion movements. One hundred and thirty children from 3.5 to 7.5 years of age were instructed to walk in step-alternating mode on and between obstacles in different imitation forms following gestural demonstration, and in a control condition following verbal instructions. The children’s performances were videotaped, coded in binary data, and then put into percentage. Results showed first, that all children performed the modeled walking movements, but did not necessarily do so with the same step-alternating mode or footedness and second, that the model helped the preschoolers to adopt his step-alternating mode and stabilized the schoolers from the age of 5.5-year-olds. These findings reveal that the age of 5.5 is crucial for imitating a walking task while overcoming the constraints of balance and propulsion.