Dr. Andrew Meltzoff Minds, brains and how children learn From infants to society - 2/16/17
Human beings are highly social creatures, and our social nature is already evident in infancy. Infants, prior to language, use imitation to learn about physical objects and cultural practices. Infant imitation entails a mapping between action perception and production. This mapping can be described as both the psychological and neural levels. One of the infant’s first and most basic psychological acts is the recognition of others who act, move and behave like the self. This is captured by a theory of social development I have called the “Like-Me” developmental theory. I propose that this lies at the foundation for human social cognitive development. I will also extend this view to older children, and discuss how pervasive stereotypes about social groups influence children’s emerging sense of self and identity.
