Meltzoff and Moore

• Meltzoff and Moore

  • studied babies using observations and different stimuli (gestures)
  • found babies as young as 2 weeks display a degree of synchrony
  • their ability to imitate sevres as an important building block for later social and cognitive development
• (M&M) - Problems with testing infant behaviour

  • It's difficult to ditinguish between general activity and specific imitated behaviours as we dont know what's taking place from the infant's perspective
• (M&M) - Failure to replicate

  • many subsequent studies have failed to replicate the findings from M&M which questions its reliability
• (M&M) - Only observations

  • obsevrations dont tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity so may not actaully be that useful
  • subjective?