Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep;64(6):e22272.
doi: 10.1002/dev.22272.

Observed shyness leads to more automatic imitation in early childhood

Taigan L MacGowan  1 , James Mirabelli  1 , Sukhvinder S Obhi  1 , Louis A Schmidt  1
Affiliations

Observed shyness leads to more automatic imitation in early childhood

Taigan L MacGowan et al. Dev Psychobiol. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

The authors investigated children's automatic imitation in the context of observed shyness by adapting the widely used automatic imitation task (AIT). AIT performance in 6-year-old children (N = 38; 22 female; 71% White) and young adults (17-22 years; N = 122; 99 female; 32% White) was first examined as a proof of concept and to assess age-related differences in responses to the task (Experiment 1). Although error rate measures of automatic imitation were comparable between children and adults, children displayed less reaction time interference than adults. Children's shyness coded from direct behavioral observations was then examined in relation to AIT scores (Experiment 2). Observed shyness at 5 years old predicted higher automatic imitation one year later. We discuss the latter findings in the context of an adaptive strategy. We argue that shy children may possess a heightened sensitivity to others' motor cues and therefore are more likely to implicitly imitate social partners' actions. This tendency may serve as a strategy to signal appeasement and affiliation, allowing for shy children to blend in and feel less inhibited in a social environment.

Keywords: automatic imitation; motor resonance; respiratory sinus arrythmia; self-other processing; shyness; social cognition; temperament.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

REFERENCES

    1. Agnew, Z. K., Bhakoo, K. K., & Puri, B. K. (2007). The human mirror system: A motor resonance theory of mind-reading. Brain Research Reviews, 54(2), 286-293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainresrev.2007.04.003
    1. Bach, P., Peatfield, N. A., & Tipper, S. P. (2007). Focusing on body sites: The role of spatial attention in action perception. Experimental Brain Research, 178(4), 509-517. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-006-0756-4
    1. Barr, R., Dowden, A., & Hayne, H. (1996). Developmental changes in deferred imitation by 6-to 24-month-old infants. Infant Behavior and Development, 19(2), 159-170. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-6383(96)90015-6
    1. Berntson, G. G., Bigger, J. T., Eckberg, D. L., Grossman, P., Kaufmann, P. G., Malik, M., Nagaraju, H. N., Porges, S. W., Saul, J. P., Stone, P. H., & Van der Molen, M. W. (1997). Heart rate variability: Origins, methods, and interpretive caveats. Psychophysiology, 34, 623-648. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1997.tb02140.x
    1. Bos, P. A., Jap-Tjong, N., Spencer, H., & Hofman, D. (2016). Social context modulates facial imitation of children's emotional expressions. Plos One, 11(12), e0167991. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0167991

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources