A Reexamination of Newborns' Ability to Imitate Facial Expressions

The ability to imitate facial expressions was examined in 26 newborns. Each subject observed a model showing tongue protrusion or a happy, sad, or surprised face. The frequencies of reproduction of a modeled act were compared with the average frequencies of the act during periods when other actions were modeled. A trials-to-criterion design was used. When infants observed the emotional facial expressions (happy, sad, surprise), they often responded by opening their mouths or showing lip pouts, but did not show imitative-like matching of these modeled expressions. However, when tongue protrusion was modeled, the infants did reproduce the modeled gesture. These data raise the question of whether the infants' responses to modeled facial expressions reflect true imitation, stimulus-evoked elicitation, or a stereotyped "facial gesture.".