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Mechanisms of imitation: The relabeled story

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 1998

Herbert L. Roitblat
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822 roitblat@hawaii.edu

Abstract

Byrne & Russon propose an account of imitation that mirrors levels of behavioral organization, but they perpetuate a tendency to dismiss imitation by members of most species as the result of more primitive processes, even though these alternative phenomena are often poorly understood. They argue that the prerequisites to program-level imitation are present in great apes, but the same prerequisites appear to be present in a broad range of species. The distribution of imitative capacity across species may be more limited by research methodology than by cognitive ability.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
© 1998 Cambridge University Press

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