Abstract
The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of observing other’s movements on subsequent performance in bottlenose dolphins. The imitative ability of non-human animals has intrigued a number of researchers. So far, however, studies in dolphins have been confined to intentional imitation concerned with the explicit request to imitate other agents. In the absence of instruction to imitate, do dolphins (un)intentionally replicate other’s movement features? To test this, dolphins were filmed while reaching and touching a stimulus before and after observing another dolphin (i.e., model) performing the same action. All videos were reviewed and segmented in order to extract the relevant movements. A marker was inserted post hoc via software on the videos upon the anatomical landmark of interest (i.e., rostrum) and was tracked throughout the time course of the movement sequence. The movement was analyzed using an in-house software developed to perform two-dimensional (2D) post hoc kinematic analysis. The results indicate that dolphins’ kinematics is sensitive to other’s movement features. Movements performed for the “visuomotor priming” condition were characterized by a kinematic pattern similar to that performed by the observed dolphin (i.e., model). Addressing the issue of spontaneous imitation in bottlenose dolphins might allow ascertaining whether the potential or impulse to produce an imitative action is generated, not just when they intend to imitate, but whenever they watch another conspecific’s behavior. In closing, this will clarify whether motor representational capacity is a by-product of factors specific to humans or whether more general characteristics such as processes of associative learning prompted by high level of encephalization could help to explain the evolution of this ability.
Highlights
The human capacity for imitation is well-known and is considered one of the hallmarks of human cognition and culture (Meltzoff and Prinz, 2002)
Humans habitually copy behaviors of every type across a variety of contexts (Meltzoff, 1996; Tomasello, 1999). Those studying imitation in children and animals focused on intentional imitation because it was thought that imitation must be controlled in order to play an important role in cognitive and social development, and to mediate cultural inheritance (Heyes, 2010)
It is generally agreed that unintentional imitation effects result from a process in which action observation activates motor representations that are ‘‘similar’’ to the action observed (Heyes, 2011)
Summary
The human capacity for imitation is well-known and is considered one of the hallmarks of human cognition and culture (Meltzoff and Prinz, 2002). Two theoretical accounts explain unintentional imitation as a byproduct of learned associations between perceptual and motor representations: the ideomotor theory of action control (Prinz, 2005; Massen and Prinz, 2009) and the associative sequence learning model of imitation (Heyes et al, 2005; Catmur et al, 2009) In this connection, the extent to which animals can imitate might reflect representational capacity and is a matter of considerable importance (Whiten, 1998; Suddendorf and Whiten, 2001; Kuczaj and Yeater, 2006). Conclusive evidence of unintentional imitation in a species as phylo-genetically distant from primates as dolphins would play a pivotal role in determining whether this motor representational capacity is a by-product of factors specific to primates or whether more general characteristics such as processes of associative learning related to a high level of encephalization could help to explain the evolution of this ability
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