Study Tracks Overimitation in Infants: Copying Starts Early, but In-Group Bias Comes Later

Infants begin copying unnecessary actions well before age two, but that early tendency does not yet appear tied to choosing people who seem more similar to them. That is the central finding of a new Concordia University study published in Frontiers in Developmental Psychology.

Overimitation refers to copying steps that are irrelevant to achieving a goal, such as repeating an extra action when opening a box to reach a toy. Researchers have long linked the behavior in older children to social affiliation, but evidence in children under two has been limited.

What the new study tested

The team observed 73 children aged 16 to 21 months, with an average age just over 18 months. Each child completed four tasks designed to measure different types of imitation and a separate test for in-group preference.

In the overimitation task, an adult demonstrated three steps to open a box, including one action that did not help retrieve the toy. Other tasks measured memory-based copying and the ability to infer an adult’s intended goal when the adult appeared to fail at completing an action.

Low overimitation, no in-group pull

The researchers found low levels of overimitation at this age, and children’s performance was not driven by in-group preference. In the in-group task, children chose between objects offered by a woman and a robot, and their choices did not predict overimitation.

By contrast, two other imitation measures showed a clear relationship: elicited imitation, often used to assess early memory, and imitation of unfulfilled intentions. This pattern suggests that at 16 to 21 months, imitation is more closely aligned with developing cognition and recall than with group-based social motivations.

Why it matters for parents and educators

The authors argue that the social reasons often proposed for overimitation may emerge later in development, as children learn more about group membership. They point to related work indicating that by around preschool age, overimitation can align more with preferences for similar peers.

The findings also serve as a reminder that very young children may copy both helpful and unnecessary behaviors from adults. The researchers say this has implications for modeling actions in homes and classrooms where early learning is strongly shaped by observation.