Question

Are young infants more likely to imitate actions that are modeled by a person or simulated by an object? This question was the basis of a research study summarized in the article “The Role of Person and Object in Eliciting Early Imitation." One action examined was mouth opening. This action was modeled repeatedly by either a person or a doll, and the number of times that the infant imitated the behavior was recorded. 80 infants participated, with 35 exposed to a human model and 45 exposed to the doll. The personal model had sample mean of 5.14 and sample standard deviation of 1.60, while the doll model had a sample mean of 3.46 and sample standard deviation of 1.30.

Is there sufficient evidence to conclude with a 5% significance level that the mean number of imitations is different between infants who watch a human model and infants who watch a doll? Assume equal population variance between infant groups

Answer 1