The planning and execution of natural sequential actions in the preschool years” is an article published in Elsevier journal about the ability of preschool children to learn from observation. The article was written by Livia Freire, Richard P. Cooper, and Denis Mareschal. The authors of the paper provide a comprehensive guide on how to determine if preschool children are influenced by the over imitation of behavior.
Summary of the Article
To determine if natural actions have any effect on preschool children, the researchers carried out two experiments. They state that the imitation of behavior is a very critical element in the social domain which leads to the acquisition of early preceptors and cultural knowledge (Freier, 2015). Preschool children are noted to highly imitate the observed behavior which in some cases might include irrelevant elements. In the first experiment that was carried out 3-5-year-olds were presented with a demonstration of the target action that was misleading or an event that is unrelated. The researchers wanted to determine if the execution and planning of preschooler’s sequence of familiar events was influenced by the initial viewing of demonstrations that were misleading.
The second experiment was conducted with the aim of establishing if the enactment of misleading demonstrations by preschoolers is controlled by perceptual cues that are external. Only three-year-olds were used in the experiment. The finding of the results implied that three and five-year-olds have the ability to perform and plan the multistep target sequence that is familiar. The research was able to determine that even though preschoolers had the high familiarity with the target action their planning was controlled by a previous demonstration of the action and the existence of external cues in the task.
Evaluation
The paper is an in-depth article that enlightens the readers on the ability of preschool children to be able to learn from observations. The paper is presented in APA style guidelines with the researchers properly adhering to the formatting guidelines. The researchers were able to provide the correct in-text citation with the sources being correctly referenced. The article is well organized from the introduction to the introduction to the methods, results, discussions the acknowledgements and finally the references. All the sections of the research article have been properly developed.
The researchers adequately reviewed the other external sources and they have been appropriately merged with the final article. The paper's quality clearly reflects the contents, and the title is sufficiently succinct. Natural sequential actions have been properly planned and executed through the experiments that were demonstrated. The first study was carried out with the aim of examining imitation on children. The researchers were able to correctly prove previous knowledge which argued that it is difficult for toddlers to re-organize new familiar sequences with relation to the temporal order that they were presented.
The researchers were also able to examine their hypothesis that they had stated for the research where they had predicted that three to five-year-olds would be able to differently weight the demonstrations that are misleading. They expected that the younger children would find a difficulty in identifying sub-actions that were irrelevant showing a higher susceptibility to the actions context perceptual influences. The older children, on the other hand, were expected to be able to structure the events that had been observed in regards to specific procedural components and the relative outcomes. The questions that they set out to answer from the start have been well analyzed in the paper.
The researchers carried out the experiments which demonstrated that 3 to 5-year-old children highlighted competencies that could be compared to carrying out the target sequence that is familiar. However when the children of all ages viewed a demonstration that is misleading, before they performed a task, distinct patterns of over imitation were observed. The researchers also found out that the children’s likeliness to repeat actions that were not relevant decreased while the children were in pre-school.
Method used
The research method that was used in the article is experiments; they are procedures that are carried out to be able to refute, support or validate a research hypothesis. The study employed two methods to be able to prove the hypothesis. In the first experiment, 3 to five-year-old children were presented with a video of sandwich making that they were required to watch. The sampling method that was used in the research was able to come up with an equal number of three-year-olds and five-year-olds which is recommended since it would assist in ensuring the uniformity of the data. The experiment used 34 girls and 26 boys.
The use of videos for the children in the experiment is correct since the children could be able to comprehend what is being said easily. Data was presented in bar graph which could be easily interpreted.
The research also carried out the second experiment which wanted to determine whether preschoolers showed over imitation in actions that were familiar. The sample was the same as in the first test, with the difference being that it employed 32 girls and 28 boys. The results were also presented in bar graphs. The experiment method was used in carrying out the research which was appropriate for this study; it provided conclusive results which would have been difficult if other research methods were employed.
The results of the experiment could have however been presented in other means apart from the bar graphs. The researchers were also not able to clearly highlight the central concepts of the article. The research could have however used more recent sources which could apply to the current times as opposed to using sources from as far as 1951. The topic is also highly generalizable.
The research is however relevant as it adds knowledge and I highly recommend it as a source of information and also in citing. The observations that were made by the researchers are in line with the notion of young children goal representations. The information provided by the research is highly useful in monitoring child behavior and can be used in people that are interested in that field of study.
Conclusion
The article is relevant in providing readers with information about sequential actions in preschool children. The researchers were able to carry out an experiment which proved that the social accounts of over imitation did not provide comprehensive details of the pattern of results that had been observed. The research was presented in an easy format that will enable the readers to be able to read it and reference it. The results of the data that has been collected have been presented in a bar graph which allows easy interpretation. The research is critical as it adds knowledge to the respective fields and should be used by other researchers who are interested in observing children behaviors.
References
Freier, L. R. (2015). The planning and execution of natural sequential actions in the preschool years. Cognition 144 , 58-66.
