Imitation simply means learning a new behavior by watching another person display the behavior and then copying the person's actions. Thus, we might assume that imitation serves an important purpose for young children as well, who are astute observers of the world and have a lot to learn. Piaget thought that imitation was important for cognitive development, particularly deferred imitation, which he saw as related to representational ability. If a child sees a behavior and then imitates it hours or days later, this means the child has incorporated some understanding of the behavior and then applied the behavior when it becomes relevant to his life. Piaget describes a temper tantrum that his infant daughter learned by watching another child perform one.
Adults often use children's capacity to imitate as a means of teaching behaviors.
This type of learning is called instrumental learning, where a behavior is learned because it is given positive reinforcement when it occurs. The same type of learning is important in early language development as well. This is currently a topic of much debate in developmental psychology. According to Piaget's theory and the learning theories of imitation, imitation is not possible in newborn infants. In addition to immediate imitation, these researchers also found that infants would imitate after a brief delay.