Abstract
Eighteen- and 25-month-old human toddlers’ ability to manually solve a puzzle and their ability to anticipate the goal during observation of similar actions were investigated. Results demonstrate that goal anticipation during action observation is dependent on manual ability, both on a group level (only 25-month-olds solved the manual task and anticipated the goal during observation) and individually within the older age group (r xy = 0.53). These findings suggests a connection between manual ability and the ability to anticipate the goal of others’ actions in toddlers, in accordance with the direct matching hypothesis.
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This study is supported by the Swedish Research Council (VR 421-2006-1794).
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Gredebäck, G., Kochukhova, O. Goal anticipation during action observation is influenced by synonymous action capabilities, a puzzling developmental study. Exp Brain Res 202, 493–497 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-009-2138-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-009-2138-1