Chapter 10 - Introduction: Identifying and Defining Imitation

Abstract

Imitation has long been regarded as a special kind of social learning, unique in both its psychological complexity and potential to support cultural transmission. Consequently, although imitation may appear to be just one of many types of social learning, it is the principal focus of psychological research on social learning in animals, and correspondingly, the concern of nearly half of the chapters in this collection. The dual significance of imitation, its perceived importance not only as a sign of complex psychological processing but also as a means of effecting the non-genetic transmission of information, may have contributed to the problems that have been encountered both in defining imitation conceptually and in identifying it empirically. The chapter shows that, in recent years, genuine progress has been made in defining and identifying instances of imitation, so that one can proceed with greater confidence to examine the phylogenetic distribution of imitation, its evolutionary history, adaptive function, ontogeny, and mechanisms of operation. A broad range of species are capable of imitation, and these animals may even imitate frequently under free-living conditions. If imitation is elusive rather than rare, then the contributions of this chapter encourage the expectation that many reliable examples of imitation in animals will become known in the next few years. Conceptual issues are now being recognized and discussed, rather than written off as merely terminological problems, and it is now broadly agreed that two-action/cross target/bidirectional control procedures provide effective methods of distinguishing imitation from its many pretenders.