We investigated motor resonance in children using a priming paradigm.
Participants were asked to judge the weight of an object shortly primed
by a hand in an action-related posture (grasp) or a non action-related
one (fist). The hand prime could belong to a child or to an adult. We
found faster response times when the object was preceded by a grasp hand
posture (motor resonance effect). More crucially, participants were
faster when the prime was a child's hand, suggesting that it could
belong to their body schema, particularly when the child's hand was
followed by a light object (motor simulation effect). A control
experiment helped us to clarify the role of the hand prime. To our
knowledge this is the first behavioral evidence of motor simulation and
motor resonance in children. Implications of the results for the
development of the sense of body ownership and for conceptual
development are discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.