Review
Causes and consequences of imitation

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01661-2Get rights and content

Abstract

Recent behavioural and neuroscientific research concerning imitation has revealed evidence of experience-dependent imitation in chimpanzees and birds, wide ranging imitation deficits in autism, and unintentional imitation in adult humans. This review examines these findings and also evaluates evidence of neonatal imitation and intentional imitation in infancy, and evidence suggesting that the left inferior frontal gyrus is specialized for imitation. At the theoretical level, the empirical findings support the view that the perceptual–motor translation that is a unique and defining property of imitation depends primarily on direct links between sensory and motor representations established through correlated experience of observing movements and carrying them out.

Section snippets

Phylogeny

Recent research on imitation in nonhuman animals has made substantial progress in its century-long quest to establish which taxa, if any, are capable of imitation 1, 2 by providing relatively unambiguous evidence of imitation in primates 34567 and birds 891011.

The primate data suggest that chimpanzees can imitate to the extent that they have had prior experience of interacting with humans 12, 13 and/or explicit training to imitate. Custance et al.4 successfully trained chimpanzees to imitate 15

Neurobiology

Research on neural mechanisms of imitation (see Box 3), is focussed on the hypothesis that areas 44 and 45 of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) are specialized for imitation. This region subsumes Broca's area, and is thought to be the human homologue of monkey F5 (Refs 49,50). F5 contains ‘mirror neurons’, which are activated by observation of, and by execution of grasping actions 51.

Perceptual–motor translation

Many of the psychological requirements for imitation (e.g. detection and analysis of others’ movements, memory, motor control) are also prerequisites for other types of behaviour. The requirement that is unique to imitation, and therefore the distinctive explanatory challenge for theories of imitation, is a mechanism that can translate visual information about the body movements of others into matching motor output. However, many theories of imitation either do not address this perceptual–motor

Questions for future research

  • •

    Are primates and birds the only animals capable of imitation?

  • •

    Is the imitative performance of 18-month-old infants guided by attribution of intention to the model?

  • •

    Do overt practice and model observation promote skill acquisition via the same mechanisms of motor learning?

  • •

    What role, if any, is played by the left inferior frontal gyrus in imitation?

  • •

    What kind of experience is important in development of the capacity to imitate?

  • •

    Exactly how does experience of imitating and being imitated contribute to

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Tony Charman, Martin Eimer, Elizabeth Ray, Anne Schlottmann and the anonymous referees for their comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript.

References (66)

  • B.G. Galef

    Recent progress in studies of imitation and social learning in animals

  • C.M. Heyes et al.

    What is the significance of imitation in animals?

    Adv. Study Behav.

    (2000)
  • M. Carpenter et al.

    Joint attention and imitative learning in children, chimpanzees and enculturated chimpanzees

    Social Dev.

    (1995)
  • D.M. Custance

    Social learning of an artificial fruit task in capuchin monkeys

    J. Comp. Psychol.

    (1999)
  • A. Whiten

    Imitative learning of artificial fruit processing in children and chimpanzees

    J. Comp. Psychol.

    (1996)
  • C.K. Akins et al.

    Imitative learning in male Japanese quail using the two-action method

    J. Comp. Psychol.

    (1996)
  • C.K. Akins et al.

    Imitation in Japanese quail: the role of reinforcement of demonstrator responding

    Psychonomic Bull. Rev.

    (1998)
  • F.M. Campbell

    Stimulus learning and response learning by observation in the European starling, in a two-object/two-action test

    Anim. Behav.

    (1999)
  • L. Lefebvre

    Carib grackles imitate conspecific and zeneida dove tutors

    Behaviour

    (1997)
  • M. Tomasello

    Do apes ape?

  • M. Tomasello

    Two hypotheses about primate cognition

  • K.A. Bard et al.

    Evolutionary foundations of imitation: social cognitive and developmental aspects of imitative processes in non-human primates

  • E. Mayr

    Behavior programs and evolutionary strategies

    Am. Sci.

    (1974)
  • A.N. Meltzoff et al.

    Imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates

    Science

    (1977)
  • A.N. Meltzoff et al.

    Explaining facial imitation: a theoretical approach

    Early Dev. Parent.

    (1997)
  • M. Anisfeld

    Neonatal imitation

    Dev. Rev.

    (1991)
  • M. Anisfeld

    Only tongue protrusion modeling is matched by neonates

    Dev. Rev.

    (1996)
  • A.N. Meltzoff et al.

    Persons and representation: why infant imitation is important for theories of human development

  • D.A. Couturier-Fagan

    Neonatal responses to tongue protrusion and mouth opening modeling

    Dissert. Abstr. Int. Section B: Sci. Eng.

    (1996)
  • S.S. Jones

    Imitation or exploration? Young infants’ matching of adults’ oral gestures

    Child Dev.

    (1996)
  • M. Heimann et al.

    Neonatal imitation and imitation among children with autism and Down's syndrome

  • M. Carpenter

    Fourteen- through 18-month-old infants differentially imitate intentional and accidental actions

    Infant Behav. Dev.

    (1998)
  • A.N. Meltzoff

    Understanding of the intentions of others: re-enactment of intended acts by 18-month-old children

    Dev. Psychol.

    (1995)

    • Cited by (0)

    View full text
    Copyright © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.