Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T19:10:47.027Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Imitation: Neither instinct nor gadget, but a cultural starting point?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2019

Lindsey J. Powell
Lindsey J. Powell*
Affiliation:
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ca mbridge, MA 02139. [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Heyes asks whether cultural learning mechanisms are cognitive instincts or cognitive gadgets. I argue that imitation does not fall into either category. Instead, its acquisition is promoted by its value in social interactions, which is evident across phylogeny and ontogeny and does not depend on the role of imitation in cultural learning.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 42 , 2019 , e180
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agnetta, B. & Rochat, P. (2004) Imitative games by 9-, 14-, and 18-month-old infants. Infancy 6(1):1–36.Google Scholar
Bavelas, J. B., Black, A., Lemery, C. R. & Mullett, J. (1986) “I show how you feel”: Motor mimicry as a communicative act. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 50(2):322.Google Scholar
Carpenter, M., Uebel, J. & Tomasello, M. (2013) Being mimicked increases prosocial behavior in 18-month-old infants. Child Development 84(5):1511–18.Google Scholar
Chartrand, T. L. & Bargh, J. A. (1999) The chameleon effect: The perception-behavior link and social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 76(6):893–910.Google Scholar
Chartrand, T. L. & Lakin, J. L. (2013) The antecedents and consequences of human behavioral mimicry. Annual Review of Psychology 64:285–308.Google Scholar
Heyes, C. (2018) Cognitive gadgets: The cultural evolution of thinking. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kokkinaki, T. & Kugiumutzakis, G. (2000) Basic aspects of vocal imitation in infant-parent interaction during the first 6 months. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology 18(3):173–87.Google Scholar
Lakin, J. L., Chartrand, T. L. & Arkin, R. M. (2008) I am too just like you: Nonconscious mimicry as an automatic behavioral response to social exclusion. Psychological Science 19(8):816–22.Google Scholar
Meltzoff, A. N. (1990) Foundations for developing a concept of self: The role of imitation in relating self to other and the value of social mirroring, social modeling, and self practice in infancy. In: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur foundation series on mental health and development. The self in transition: Infancy to childhood, ed. Cicchetti, D. & Beeghly, M., pp. 139–64. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Meltzoff, A. N., Murray, L., Simpson, E., Heimann, M., Nagy, E., Nadel, J., Pedersen, E. J., Brooks, R., Messinger, D. S., De Pascalis, L., Subiaul, F., Paukner, A. & Ferrari, P. F. (2018) Re-examination of Oostenbroek et al. (2016): Evidence for neonatal imitation of tongue protrusion. Developmental Science 21(4):e12609. doi: 10.1111/desc.12609.Google Scholar
Oostenbroek, J., Suddendorf, T., Nielsen, M., Redshaw, J., Kennedy-Costantini, S., Davis, J., Clark, S. & Slaughter, V. (2016) Comprehensive longitudinal study challenges the existence of neonatal imitation in humans. Current Biology 26(10):1334–38.Google Scholar
Over, H. & Carpenter, M. (2009) Priming third-party ostracism increases affiliative imitation in children. Developmental Science 12(3):F1–F8.Google Scholar
Paukner, A., Suomi, S. J., Visalberghi, E. & Ferrari, P. F. (2009) Capuchin monkeys display affiliation toward humans who imitate them. Science 325(5942):880–83.Google Scholar
Pawlby, S. J. (1977) Imitative interaction. In: Studies in mother-infant interaction, ed. Schaeffer, H. R., pp. 203–224. Academic Press.Google Scholar
Powell, L. J. & Spelke, E. S. (2018a) Human infants’ understanding of social imitation: Inferences of affiliation from third party observations. Cognition, 170, 31–48.Google Scholar
Powell, L. J. & Spelke, E. S. (2018b) Third-party preferences for imitators in preverbal infants. Open Mind 1(4):183–93.Google Scholar
Tunçgenç, B. & Cohen, E. (2016) Movement synchrony forges social bonds across group divides. Frontiers in Psychology 7:782.Google Scholar
van Baaren, R. B., Holland, R. W., Kawakami, K. & van Knippenberg, A. (2004) Mimicry and prosocial behavior. Psychological Science 15(1):71–74.Google Scholar