Imitative Learning in Humans and Animals I 1499 whether mirror neurons will prove to be responsible for imitation in animals even under more opaque condi- Imitative Learning tions. Even more important is the question of whether Acquiring a response by observing the response pro- these mirror neurons belong to “prewired” neural duced by others; considered to involve understanding pathways that evolved to facilitate imitation or have the relation of one’s own behavior to that of others. to be trained to behave the way they do. If learning is required, mirror neurons may result from imitation Cross-References rather than be its cause. ▶ Visual Communication and Learning Thus, the major question that remains is, what mechanisms underlie the ability of animals to imitate? As this is not an easily answered question, it may be more functional to ask some more tractable ones. For Imitative Learning in Humans example, humans are able to imitate a sequence of and Animals responses (e.g., how to change batteries in a flashlight). Can animals show such an advanced HARRIET OVER,MALINDA CARPENTER form of imitation (for suggestive evidence obtained Department of Developmental and Comparative I from pigeons, see Nguyen et al. 2005)? Also, why has Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary it been relatively easy to demonstrate imitation in bird Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany species but relatively hard to find evidence for imita- tion in non-primate mammals? The attempt to answer such questions should help researchers understand this Synonyms perplexingly complex behavior. Copying; Cultural learning; Observational learning; Social learning Cross-References ▶ Imitation and Learning Definition ▶ Imitative Learning in Humans and Animals Imitative learning occurs when an individual acquires ▶ Observational Learning of Complex Action (Dance) a novel action as a result of watching another individ- ▶ Observational Learning: The Sound of Silence ual produce it. It can be distinguished from other, ▶ Social Learning in Animals lower-level social learning mechanisms such as local ▶ Social Learning Theory enhancement, stimulus enhancement, and contagion (see ▶ Imitation: Definition, Evidence, and Mecha- References nisms). Most critically within this context, it can also Akins, C. K., & Zentall, T. R. (1996). Imitative learning in male be distinguished from emulation in which an individ- Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) using the two- action method. ual learns about the affordances and/or causal proper- Journal of Comparative Psychology, 110, 316–320. ties of the objects involved in a demonstration rather Akins, C. K., & Zentall, T. R. (1998). Imitation in Japanese quail: The than the particular actions used by the model. In stark role of reinforcement of demonstrator responding. Psychonomic contrast to emulation, the term “over-imitation” is Bulletin & Review, 5, 694–697. Bandura, A. (1969). Social learning theory of identificatory processes. sometimes used to refer to action copying that is so In D. A. Goslin (Ed.), Handbook of socialization theory and faithful that it includes the casually irrelevant and research (pp. 213–262). Chicago: Rand-McNally. unnecessary actions of a model (technically, however, Dorrance, B. R., & Zentall, T. R. (2001). Imitative learning in Japanese this term is better reserved for cases in which a learner quail depends on the motivational state of the observer at the time copies a model’s unnecessary actions even when they of observation. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 115, 62–67. have been explicitly instructed not to do so). Nguyen, N. H., Klein, E. D., & Zentall, T. R. (2005). Imitation of two-action sequences by pigeons. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12, 514–518. Theoretical Background Piaget, J. (1962). Play, dreams, and imitation in childhood (Trans: Human culture is qualitatively different from that of Gallegno, C. & Hodgson, F. M. ). New York: Norton. any other species. The depth and breadth of our 1500 I Imitative Learning in Humans and Animals

cultural traditions dwarf those of even our closest living research has shown that even infants are sensitive to primate relatives, chimpanzees. Researchers have thus these teaching cues and motivated to respond to them. far documented a total of a few dozen cultural differ- Gergely and Csibra (2006), for example, report an ences between different chimpanzee groups (Whiten experiment in which 14-month-olds infants were et al. 2001). Humans clearly go far beyond this: the presented with a demonstration in which a model cultural variation between human groups is practically performed an unusual action: turning on a light box limitless, from differences in the ways in which we using her head rather than her hand. In one condition, speak, eat and dress, to differences in the cultural rituals the model indicated that this information was impor- we engage in. Learning how group members in general tant for the infants by marking it with ostensive eye tend to do things is thus extremely important for contact. In the other condition, the model did not human cultural transmission. Copying group mem- provide any teaching cues. Results showed that infants bers’ actions is consequently much more important were significantly more likely to copy the unusual for us than it is for chimpanzees. action when it was accompanied by ostensive eye Empirical research has shown that a major difference contact. between social learning in humans and chimpanzees is Further research has shown that children do not that, whereas chimpanzees tend to copy outcomes (that merely experience social motivation and pressure to is, emulate), humans tend to copy actions, and do so imitate on a dyadic level (as in many teaching situa- from early in development. Many studies, from many tions) but also do so on a group level. This group-level different labs, have shown that young children typically aspect of imitation is evident in normativity. When copy the actions others demonstrate faithfully. They do a knowledgeable group member demonstrates an this even when the model’s actions are clearly unneces- action for a child, the child often learns it normatively, sary or causally irrelevant, when it results in less efficient as the way group members in general ought to behave. performance on their part, and, on occasion, even when In one of the earliest illustrations of this, Rakoczy et al. they are explicitly told not to. In contrast to the behavior (2008) presented 3-year-old children with demonstra- of young children, chimpanzees spontaneously copy tions of how to play a novel game. Once children had others’ actions only rarely. learned the game, a puppet asked to join in but then Beyond copying actions versus outcomes, there are performed the relevant actions incorrectly. Children several other, even more deeply social aspects of imita- protested against this violation of the norms of the tion that appear to be unique to humans. As we will see game, attempting to enforce the learned norms on below, these all involve the motivation to be like other the puppet. The children in this study thus demon- members of the group, and the pressures, coming both strated that they had internalized the relevant norms from within individuals and from the group itself, to do and expected other group members to adhere to them things the way “we” all do them. When compared to as well. social learning in chimpanzees (as well as to social Another area in which the group-level aspects of learning in other animal species), it is clear that imita- imitation are particularly clear is conformity. In adults tive learning in humans is a profoundly social process. at least, conformity is a powerful mechanism through which cultural norms, behaviors, and attitudes are Important Scientific Research and learned and maintained. Recent research has shown Open Questions that young children also conform to the behavior of As outlined above, the key differences between imita- those around them. In fact, the motivation and pres- tive learning in humans and animals appear to reside in sure to conform is so great that children conform to the the social motivations and social pressures which influ- claims of their group members even when those claims ence human copying behavior. One situation in which are clearly false. For example, when presented with an the social pressure to imitate is particularly clear is Asch-style test of conformity, 4-year-olds conform teaching. When engaged in a teaching situation, knowl- to the majority’s opinion on almost 40% of trials edgeable members of the group often mark informa- (Haun and Tomasello in press). Evidence that social tion that is important for the learner to reproduce with motivations and pressures underlie much of children’s social cues such as ostensive eye contact. Recent “extreme” copying come from findings like the Impaired Multidimensional Motor Sequence Learning I 1501 following: children conform more in public than in References private (Haun and Tomasello in press) and increase Gergely,G.,&Csibra,G.(2006).Sylvia’srecipe:Theroleofimitationand how closely they copy others when they have a goal to pedagogy in the transmission of human culture. In N. J. Enfield & affiliate (Over and Carpenter 2009). S. C. Levinson (Eds.), Roots of human sociality: Culture, cognition, and human interaction (pp. 229–255). Oxford: Berg Publishers. In contrast to human children, there is little evi- Haun, D. B. M., & Tomasello, M. (in press). Conformity to peer dence that chimpanzees experience either social moti- pressure in preschool children. Child Development. vation or social pressure to imitate. For example, Over, H., & Carpenter, M. (2009). Priming third-party ostracism chimpanzees do not appear to be sensitive to either increases affiliative imitation in children. Developmental Science, social-teaching cues, such as ostensive eye contact, or to 12, F1–F8. social norms. Recently, however, there has been some Rakoczy, H., Warneken, F., & Tomasello, M. (2008). The sources of normativity: Young children’s awareness of the normative struc- suggestion that chimpanzees show conformity to the ture of games. Developmental Psychology, 44, 875–881. behavior of their group members. That is, when indi- Whiten, A., Goodall, J., McGrew, W. C., Nishida, T., Reynolds, V., vidual chimpanzees are trained how to use a particular Sugiyama, Y., Tutin, C. E. G., Wrangham, R. W., & Boesch, C. technique in order to obtain food and then placed back (2001). Charting cultural variation in chimpanzees. Behaviour, into their social group, the learned technique tends to 138, 1489–1525. Whiten, A., Horner, V., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2005). Conformity to spread to other group members (Whiten et al. 2005). cultural norms of tool use in chimpanzees. Nature, 437, 737–740. I However, this is most likely a product of lower-level social learning mechanisms such as emulation, rather than (internally or externally felt) social pressure to conform to the behavior of group members. Open questions, of course, remain. In terms of Immediate Memory developmental research, one of the most pressing ques- ▶ Working Memory and Information Processing tions for future research is the extent to which the intergroup context influences imitation. For example, do young children learn actions more readily and more deeply from ingroup members than from outgroup members? In terms of comparative research, one open Immigrant Learning question relates to enculturation. Previous research has ▶ Learning and Education in Migration Settings suggested that extensive human contact increases chimpanzees’ tendency to copy actions. Does this pro- cess of enculturation increase the social motivations and pressures chimpanzees feel to imitate? Other open questions relate to imitative learning in other Impaired Multidimensional animal species. Previous research has shown that Motor Sequence Learning a great many animal species including, but not limited to, rats, songbirds, dolphins, and whales are capable of MICHAEL BORICH,LARA BOYD social learning (see Social learning in animals). To what University of British Columbia, Vancouver, extent (if at all) does the social context influence copy- BC, Canada ing in these other animal species?

Cross-References Synonyms ▶ Animal Culture Categorization of variation in movement; Dimension ▶ Imitation and Social Learning of movement; Domain of movement; Elements of ▶ Imitational Learning of Robots movement ▶ Learning and Evolution of Social Norms ▶ Model-Based Imitation Learning Definition ▶ Social-Cultural Learning Inability to learn a dimension of movement with prac- ▶ Social Learning in Animals tice in response to specific task demands during