Imitation
However, this claim has been recently challenged by scientific research which observed social learning and imitative abilities in animals.
These writers assume that evolution would have selected imitative abilities as fit because those who were good at it had a wider arsenal of learned behavior at their disposal, including tool-making and language.
[13] Imitation mechanisms play a central role in both analytical and empirical models of collective human behavior.
[14] Humans are capable of imitating movements, actions, skills, behaviors, gestures, pantomimes, mimics, vocalizations, sounds, speech, etc.
On studying the cerebral localization of function, Liepmann postulated that planned or commanded actions were prepared in the parietal lobe of the brain's dominant hemisphere, and also frontally.
[18] However, little evidence directly supports the theory that mirror neuron activity is involved in cognitive functions such as empathy or learning by imitation.
"[29] This definition is favored by many scholars, though questions have been raised how strictly the term "novel" has to be interpreted and how exactly a performed act has to match the demonstration to count as a copy.
[32] They analyzed the motion trajectories of both model and observer monkeys and found a high matching degree in their movement patterns.
Heyes[33][34] and co-workers reported evidence for imitation in rats that pushed a lever in the same direction as their models, though later on they withdrew their claims due to methodological problems in their original setup.
[49] Associative, or sometimes referred to as "contiguity",[50] theories suggest that the information required to display certain behaviors does not come from within ourselves but solely from our surroundings and experiences.
[48] These theories have not yet provided testable predictions in the field of social learning in animals and have yet to conclude strong results.
[51] The second, primatologists and comparative psychologists have found imperative evidence that suggest true learning through imitation in animals.
[51] The third, population biologists and behavioral ecologists created experiments that demand animals to depend on social learning in certain manipulated environments.
It is shown, however, that "children with autism exhibit significant deficits in imitation that are associated with impairments in other social communication skills.
[53] Reinforcement learning, both positive and negative, and punishment, are used by people that children imitate to either promote or discontinue behavior.
Naturally, children are surrounded by many different types of people that influence their actions and behaviors, including parents, family members, teachers, peers, and even characters on television programs.
[56][57] For example, in a study conducted at the Mailman Centre for Child Development at the University of Miami Medical School, 74 newborn babies (with a mean age of 36 hours) were tested to see if they were able to imitate a smile, a frown and a pout, and a wide-open mouth and eyes.
A research group from the University of Queensland in Australia carried out the largest-ever longitudinal study of neonatal imitation in humans.
The results failed to reveal compelling evidence that newborns imitate: Infants were just as likely to produce matching and non-matching gestures in response to what they saw.
[59] At around eight months, infants will start to copy their child care providers' movements when playing pat-a-cake and peek-a-boo, as well as imitating familiar gestures, such as clapping hands together or patting a doll's back.
[citation needed] At around 30–36 months, toddlers will start to imitate their parents by pretending to get ready for work and school and saying the last word(s) of what an adult just said.
12- to 36-month-olds learn by doing, not by watching, and so it is often recommended to be a good role model and caretaker by showing them simple tasks like putting on socks or holding a spoon.
[63] An important agenda for infancy is the progressive imitation of higher levels of use of signs, until the ultimate achievement of symbols.
The principal role played by parents in this process is their provision of salient models within the facilitating frames that channel the infant's attention and organize his imitative efforts.
"[65] No other research is more controversial pertaining gender differences in toddler imitation than psychologist, Bandura's, bobo doll experiments.
[53] On the contrary, research from the early 21st century suggests that people affected with forms of high-functioning autism easily interact with one another by using a more analytically-centered communication approach rather than an imitative cue-based approach,[70] suggesting that reduced imitative capabilities do not affect abilities for expressive social behavior but only the understanding of said social behavior.
[citation needed] Over-imitation is "the tendency of young children to copy all of an adult model's actions, even components that are irrelevant for the task at hand.
[80] However, another study suggests that children do not just "blindly follow the crowd" since they can also be just as discriminating as adults in choosing whether an unnecessary action should be copied or not.
[83] Piaget coined the term deferred imitation and suggested that it arises out of the child's increasing ability to "form mental representations of behavior performed by others.
"[2] A child's deferred imitation ability "to form mental representations of actions occurring in everyday life and their knowledge of communicative gestures" has also been linked to earlier productive language development.
