1. How was goal directed imitation operationalised? Reproducing the action that had been accompanied by the purposeful tone of voice. How was a score computed? A proportion was calculated by dividing the number of intentional actions performed by infants by the total number of intentional and accidental actions performed by infants. Mouse-House Task Age: Goal-directed imitation measured at 13 months How was goal-directed imitation operationalised? Reproducing the experimenter’s movement of a toy to a specific location. How was a score computed? A proportion was calculated by dividing the number of goal-directed actions performed by infants by the possible number of goal-directed actions. Age: Goal-directed imitation measured at 14 months. Discussion Our results are consistent with previous studies reporting group means: infants interpret adults’ actions in terms of goals, and early in the second year, reproduce those goals. Performance on the two imitation tasks was positively correlated, supporting the hypothesis that goal-directed imitation is a trait with inter-individual variability. Future studies will build on the consistencies in imitation to compare hypotheses about the mechanisms underlying imitative behaviours. References Bekkering, H., Wohlschläger, A., & Gattis, M. (2000).Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 53A, 153–164. Carpenter, M., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2005). Developmental Science, 8, F13- F20. Acknowledgements We would like to thank the EPS for the Grindley Grant awarded to Elena Sakkalou and the Leverhulme Trust for funding this research. Introduction Debates about the mechanisms underlying imitation focus on comparisons of group means across experimental conditions. Such comparisons allow inferences about whether imitation was goal-directed in one condition versus another, but do not allow inferences about whether goal-directed imitation varies consistently between individuals (Bekkering, Wohlschläger, & Gattis 2000; Carpenter, Call, & Tomasello, 2005) Data at the individual level suggest that there is individual variability in imitative behaviour, but little else is known. The aim of this project is to establish whether variability in imitation reflects meaningful individual differences, and therefore might be used to test hypotheses about the mechanisms. We compared infant performance on two experimental measures of goal-directed imitation to examine whether goal- directed imitation is a trait with inter-individual variability. We tested 37 infants on two measures, one at 13 and one at 14 months. Goal-Directed Imitation: State or Trait? Elena Sakkalou, Katherine Ellis, Nia Fowler, Elma Hilbrink & Merideth Gattis Cardiff University 65432106543210 0.5 1 Frequency There was a relationship between the performance of infants on the two end locations in the Mouse-House Task and the proportion of intentional actions performed in the Ohi-Nato Task, r =.34 (p =.04). Ohi-Nato Task Mean proportion Ohi-Nato Task No Action Two Actions One Action 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 Frequency