The DOI matches its Crossref record; 42 of the 42 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
How do children ape? Applying concepts from the study of non‐human primates to the developmental study of ‘imitation’ in children
Open accessAbstract
We highlight two aspects of research into social learning that have been neglected in existing developmental research, namely: (1) The role of social learning in learning to use tools, and (2) Whether children’s social learning involves copying the actions themselves (‘blind’ imitation or mimicry), or alternatively, the effects of those actions (emulation). In Part I of the paper we argue that the failure to distinguish between these different mechanisms is closely related to the lack of research on the social transmission of tool use and that both omissions limit our understanding of early social learning. We conclude Part I by outlining the requirements for an adequate study of these two issues. In Part II, we use this analysis to critically examine data from existing developmental research with children. We also assess the data currently available in the comparative literature which address these issues more directly. We conclude that children learn only what actions to perform via observation (‘blind’ imitation or mimicry), and not why those actions are effective (emulation). We close by identifying important potential pitfalls and unresolved questions for the future study of the social learning of actions on objects.
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Cites
Imitation of Facial and Manual Gestures by Human Neonates
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Understanding the intentions of others: Re-enactment of intended acts by 18-month-old children.
Meltzoff, A. N. (1995) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037//0012-1649.31.5.838 · Cited by 2,110
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Newborn Infants Imitate Adult Facial Gestures
Meltzoff, A. N., & Moore, M. (1983) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1983.tb00496.x · Cited by 1,307
Learning by imitation: A hierarchical approach
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Theory of mind in nonhuman primates
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Cited by
Empathy: its ultimate and proximate bases
Preston, S. D., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2002) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x02000018 · Cited by 4,126
The hidden structure of overimitation
Lyons, D. E., Young, A. G., & Keil, F. C. (2007) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0704452104 · Cited by 734
Imitation and Innovation: The Dual Engines of Cultural Learning
Legare, C. H., & Nielsen, M. (2015) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2015.08.005 · Cited by 484
McIntosh, D. N., Reichmann‐Decker, A., Winkielman, P., & Wilbarger, J. L. (2006) · Developmental Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2006.00492.x · Cited by 466
Copying actions and copying outcomes: Social learning through the second year.
Nielsen, M. (2006) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037/0012-1649.42.3.555 · Cited by 422
Metadata
- Authors
- Want, S. C., & Harris, P. L.
- Venue
- Developmental Science
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2002-03
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-14
- ISSN
- 1363-755X (ISSN-L)
- 1467-7687
- OpenAlex
- W2030928604
- Cited by
- 288
- References
- 42
- FWCI
- 15.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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