Imitation Performance Research Articles

Imitation versus Innovation: What Makes the Difference?

The main objective of this empirical paper is to identify characteristics of imitation and innovation and shed light on possible differences between these two kinds of innovative activity. Thus, it tries to answer the following questions: (a) what are the determinants of imitative performance compared to determinants of innovative performance and (b) what are the determinants of switching from imitative to innovative behavior compared to imitators and innovators showing persistence over time. The study is based on Swiss firm data. In sum, our findings indicate that imitating firms are significantly more ‘extroverted’ than innovating firms because their activities are much more related to external R&D activities and cooperation and medium-educated personnel. Innovating firms do not rely to the same extent on the exploration of external knowledge. Their rather ‘introverted’ behavior seems be more related with intense exploitation of internal resources. Further, the profiles of different types of innovating firms show that an innovation performance hierarchy exists ranking from occasional innovators through switchers to persistently innovating firms.

Neonatal imitation predicts how infants engage with faces.

In human infants, neonatal imitation and preferences for eyes are both associated with later social and communicative skills, yet the relationship between these abilities remains unexplored. Here we investigated whether neonatal imitation predicts facial viewing patterns in infant rhesus macaques. We first assessed infant macaques for lipsmacking (a core affiliative gesture) and tongue protrusion imitation in the first week of life. When infants were 10-28days old, we presented them with an animated macaque avatar displaying a still face followed by lipsmacking or tongue protrusion movements. Using eye tracking technology, we found that macaque infants generally looked equally at the eyes and mouth during gesture presentation, but only lipsmacking-imitators showed significantly more looking at the eyes of the neutral still face. These results suggest that neonatal imitation performance may be an early measure of social attention biases and might potentially facilitate the identification of infants at risk for atypical social development.

How Do Groups Matter?

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between competitive responses and performance, subject to environmental dynamism and strategic action types, to understand competitive responses under moderating effects. This study employed a structured content analysis of coding data from multiple sources and collected competitive actions and responses for the period between 1999 and 2011 in the Taiwanese banking industry. The results show that response likelihood, response imitation and response speed are positively associated with firm performance and that environmental dynamism weakens the relationships among firm performance, response likelihood and response speed. Furthermore, the intensity of strategic action strengthens the relationship between response imitation and firm performance. This study first investigates the roles of environmental dynamism and action types on the relationship between competitive response characteristics and firm performance. This study considers not only the impact of individual firms' responses on their performance but also the impact of collective actions taken by other firms, thus providing new insights in competitive dynamics research.

Is selective attention the basis for selective imitation in infants? An eye-tracking study of deferred imitation with 12-month-olds

Infants and children do not blindly copy every action they observe during imitation tasks. Research demonstrated that infants are efficient selective imitators. The impact of selective perceptual processes (selective attention) for selective deferred imitation, however, is still poorly described. The current study, therefore, analyzed 12-month-old infants’ looking behavior during demonstration of two types of target actions: arbitrary versus functional actions. A fully automated remote eye tracker was used to assess infants’ looking behavior during action demonstration. After a 30-min delay, infants’ deferred imitation performance was assessed. Next to replicating a memory effect, results demonstrate that infants do imitate significantly more functional actions than arbitrary actions (functionality effect). Eye-tracking data show that whereas infants do not fixate significantly longer on functional actions than on arbitrary actions, amount of fixations and amount of saccades differ between functional and arbitrary actions, indicating different encoding mechanisms. In addition, item-level findings differ from overall findings, indicating that perceptual and conceptual item features influence looking behavior. Looking behavior on both the overall and item levels, however, does not relate to deferred imitation performance. Taken together, the findings demonstrate that, on the one hand, selective imitation is not explainable merely by selective attention processes. On the other hand, notwithstanding this reasoning, attention processes on the item level are important for encoding processes during target action demonstration. Limitations and future studies are discussed.

The Use of Rehabilitation Means as a Technical Instruction Method in Ski Jumping

This research started from the necessity of instituting a physical therapy intervention program that would ensure the continuity of technical instruction in parallel with a correct and complete rehabilitation of the injured functions. The physical therapy intervention consisted in setting the short term objectives of physical therapy: reducing physical effort, diminishing the pain and the inflammatory process, increasing the range of motions in flexing the calf on the thigh (first without loading, then with loading the limb), strengthening the calf and thigh muscles (agonist and antagonist muscles), and rebuilding and increasing the antero-posterior stability of the knee, this last objective being the central element of the physical therapy intervention for consolidating the results obtained and preventing future injuries. From a technical standpoint, linked imitative performances were used (in-run – take-off – flight – landing positions), both from a fixed and from a moving position – on a wheel cart and on skis, then the training continued on a jumping hill, where there was an optimal ratio between the in-run speed, the length of the jump, and the landing surface. The results obtained at the Liberec Junior World Championship in January 2013 (19th position), the best Romanian result, confirms the success of this program.

The Developmental Trajectory of Imitation in Infants with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Prospective Study

Impairments in imitation are present in young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but the onset of these impairments is unknown. The present study investigated the developmental trajectories affiliated with various types of imitation. Imitative performances in infancy were observed in a prospective design, and retrospectively compared between ASD and typically developing (TD) infants. The results indicated that infants who later presented the symptoms of ASD showed less imitation at 13 months of age, but not at 11 months. Both of TD and ASD infants imitated more object manipulations than gestures and meaningless movements, and gestures were more frequent than meaningless movements. Imitation impairments in ASD appear to be delayed instead of being atypical. Our findings can be used in assessments of ASD before 18 months of age.

Business Model Imitation and New Venture Performance

Research on competitive imitation has become increasingly important in strategic management. To date, imitative processes have been studied independently and within industries only. This paper builds arguments on the direct and interaction effects of two different forms of competitive imitation – intra- and extraindustry business model imitation breadth – on new venture performance. An analysis of 96 new ventures in the manufacturing industry in Switzerland shows that both forms of imitation have significant positive direct effects on new venture performance. Further, the findings support the interaction effect as they demonstrate that the direct effect of intraindustry imitation breadth is more important for new venture performance for ventures with a high level of extraindustry imitation breadth. The paper contributes not only to imitation literature, but also to the burgeoning literature of business model innovation

Deficits in motor abilities and developmental fractionation of imitation performance in high-functioning autism spectrum disorders

The co-occurrence of motor and imitation disabilities often characterises the spectrum of deficits seen in patients with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Whether these seemingly separate deficits are inter-related and whether, in particular, motor deficits contribute to the expression of imitation deficits is the topic of the present study and was investigated by comparing these deficits' cross-sectional developmental trajectories. To that end, different components of motor performance assessed in the Zurich Neuromotor Assessment and imitation abilities for facial movements and non-meaningful gestures were tested in 70 subjects (aged 6-29 years), including 36 patients with high-functioning ASD and 34 age-matched typically developed (TD) participants. The results show robust deficits in probands with ASD in timed motor performance and in the quality of movement, which are all independent of age, with one exception. Only diadochokinesis improves moderately with increasing age in ASD probands. Imitation of facial movements and of non-meaningful hand, finger, hand finger gestures not related to social context or tool use is also impaired in ASD subjects, but in contrast to motor performance this deficit overall improves with age. A general imitation factor, extracted from the highly inter-correlated imitation tests, is differentially correlated with components of neuromotor performance in ASD and TD participants. By developmentally fractionating developmentally stable motor deficits from developmentally dynamic imitation deficits, we infer that imitation deficits are primarily cognitive in nature.

Elicited Imitation Performance at 20 Months Predicts Memory Abilities in School-Aged Children

During the first decade of life, there are marked improvements in mnemonic abilities. An important question from both a theoretical and applied perspective is the extent of continuity in the nature of memory during this period. The present longitudinal investigation examined declarative memory during the transition from toddlerhood to school age using both experimental and standardized assessments. Results indicate significant associations between immediate nonverbal recall at 20 months (measured by elicited imitation) and immediate verbal and nonverbal memory (measured by standardized and laboratory-based tasks) at 6 years in typically developing children. Regression models revealed this association was specific, as measures of language abilities and temperament were not predictive of later memory performance. These findings suggest both continuity and specificity within the declarative memory system during the first years of life. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.

Relations between 18-month-olds’ gaze pattern and target action performance: A deferred imitation study with eye tracking

Deferred imitation studies are used to assess infants’ declarative memory performance. These studies have found that deferred imitation performance improves with age, which is usually attributed to advancing memory capabilities. Imitation studies, however, are also used to assess infants’ action understanding. In this second research program it has been observed that infants around the age of one year imitate selectively, i.e., they imitate certain kinds of target actions and omit others. In contrast to this, two-year-olds usually imitate the model's exact actions. 18-month-olds imitate more exactly than one-year-olds, but more selectively than two-year-olds, a fact which makes this age group especially interesting, since the processes underlying selective vs. exact imitation are largely debated. The question, for example, if selective attention to certain kinds of target actions accounts for preferential imitation of these actions in young infants is still open. Additionally, relations between memory capabilities and selective imitation processes, as well as their role in shaping 18-month-olds’ neither completely selective, nor completely exact imitation have not been thoroughly investigated yet. The present study, therefore, assessed 18-month-olds’ gaze toward two types of actions (functional vs. arbitrary target actions) and the model's face during target action demonstration, as well as infants’ deferred imitation performance. Although infants’ fixation times to functional target actions were not longer than to arbitrary target actions, they imitated the functional target actions more frequently than the arbitrary ones. This suggests that selective imitation does not rely on selective gaze toward functional target actions during the demonstration phase. In addition, a post hoc analysis of interindividual differences suggested that infants’ attention to the model's social-communicative cues might play an important role in exact imitation, meaning the imitation of both functional and arbitrary target actions.

Effects of context and facial expression on imitation tasks in preschool children with autism

The present study explored the effect of the context in which an imitation act occurs (elicited/spontaneous) and the experimenter's facial expression (neutral or smiling) during the imitation task with young children with autism and typically developing children. The participants were 10 typically developing children and 10 children with autism (mean chronological age: 72 months). They were tested in imitation of tasks and facial expressions posed by the researcher. The results showed that, compared with typically developing children, children with autism: (a) engaged less in imitation of action with objects, (b) had more difficulties with the imitation of facial expressions in the elicited condition, and (c) performed less accurately both at imitating the experimenter's facial expression and on tasks involving the simultaneous imitation of action with objects and facial expression, and (d) the type of the experimenter's facial expression did not influence the imitative performance of either group in either the elicited or the spontaneous condition. The present study attempts to advance investigation of imitative ability and impairment in autism.

Nonverbal imitation skills in children with specific language delay

Research in children with language problems has focussed on verbal deficits, and we have less understanding of children's deficits with nonverbal sociocognitive skills which have been proposed to be important for language acquisition. This study was designed to investigate elicited nonverbal imitation in children with specific language delay (SLD). It is argued that difficulties in nonverbal imitation, which do not involve the processing of structural aspects of language, may be indicative of sociocognitive deficits. Participants were German-speaking typically developing children (n=60) and children with SLD (n=45) aged 2-3 ½ years. A novel battery of tasks measured their ability to imitate a range of nonverbal target acts that to a greater or lesser extent involve sociocognitive skills (body movements, instrumental acts on objects, pretend acts). Significant group differences were found for all body movement and pretend act tasks, but not for the instrumental act tasks. The poorer imitative performance of the SLD sample was not explained by motor or nonverbal cognitive skills. Thus, it appeared that the nature of the task affected children's imitation performance. It is argued that the ability to establish a sense of connectedness with the demonstrator was at the core of children's imitation difficulty in the SLD sample.

A model‐based approach to limb apraxia in Alzheimer's disease

Limb apraxia is a neurological deficit characterized by an inability to pantomime and/or imitate gestures, which can result from neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). The major goal of the study was to describe comprehensively the apraxia deficits observed in AD patients and to relate those deficits to general cognitive status, measures of daily activity, and other neuropsychological measures. Limb apraxia was assessed on a variety of conceptual and gesture production tasks in 30 AD patients. As a group, AD patients were impaired across gesture production tasks: of note was the greater impairment in imitation, as opposed to pantomime, which was especially pronounced when patients were imitating with a delay. Imitation performance was best predicted by measures of visuospatial processing, while imitation with delay was best predicted by measures of working memory. In addition, pantomime in response to pictures of tools was less accurate than Pantomime to Verbal Command and holding the tool during performance did not decrease the participants' impairment, while introducing a verbal cue during imitation increased the severity of deficits. Furthermore, investigation into patterns of deficits clearly demonstrated that the nature of limb apraxia deficits observed in AD can be quite heterogeneous and that dissociations between the conceptual and the production system exist. Finally, we also report on significant correlations between general cognitive status and limb apraxia.

Imitative Learning of Nso and German Infants at 6 and 9 Months of Age

The present study focused on the assessment of imitation performance in a large sample of 6- and 9-month-old infants from two different cultural contexts: German middle-class infants from urban areas and Nso infants from a rural area in northwestern Cameroon were tested by using age-adapted deferred imitation tasks that were varied regarding their cultural familiarity (two types of instruments each being highly familiar for one of the two cultural contexts). Within both cultural groups and without being influenced by the cultural familiarity of the instruments, infants performed more target actions in the test compared with the baseline phase, even though this difference did not yield significance in the group of 6-month-old Cameroonian Nso infants. Moreover, a higher mean number of imitated actions has been observed for 9-month-olds compared with 6-month-olds demonstrating an age-related improvement of infants’ learning ability. Furthermore, at 9 months of age, German infants showed a higher level of baseline activity compared with the infants in the Cameroonian sample, which is assumed to be based on differences regarding the degree of object experiences. Results provide evidence that early in infancy, imitation is a universal learning tool in different cultural environments.

Immediate and Distracted Imitation in Second-Language Speech: Unreleased Plosives In English

The paper investigates immediate and distracted imitation in second-language speech using unreleased plosives. Unreleased plosives are fairly frequently found in English sequences of two stops. Polish, on the other hand, is characterised by a significant rate of releases in such sequences. This cross-linguistic difference served as material to look into how and to what extent non-native properties of sounds can be produced in immediate and distracted imitation. Thirteen native speakers of Polish first read and then imitated sequences of words with two stops straddling the word boundary. Stimuli for imitation had no release of the first stop. The results revealed that (1) a non-native feature such as the lack of the release burst can be imitated; (2) distracting imitation impedes imitative performance; (3) the type of a sequence interacts with the magnitude of an imitative effect

Effects of children's working memory capacity and processing speed on their sentence imitation performance

More limited working memory capacity and slower processing for language and cognitive tasks are characteristics of many children with language difficulties. Individual differences in processing speed have not consistently been found to predict language ability or severity of language impairment. There are conflicting views on whether working memory and processing speed are integrated or separable abilities. To evaluate four models for the relations of individual differences in children's processing speed and working memory capacity in sentence imitation. The models considered whether working memory and processing speed are integrated or separable, as well as the effect of the number of operations required per sentence. The role of working memory as a mediator of the effect of processing speed on sentence imitation was also evaluated. Forty-six children with varied language and reading abilities imitated sentences. Working memory was measured with the Competing Language Processing Task (CLPT), and processing speed was measured with a composite of truth-value judgment and rapid automatized naming tasks. Mixed-effects ordinal regression models evaluated the CLPT and processing speed as predictors of sentence imitation item scores. A single mediator model evaluated working memory as a mediator of the effect of processing speed on sentence imitation total scores. Working memory was a reliable predictor of sentence imitation accuracy, but processing speed predicted sentence imitation only as a component of a processing speed by number of operations interaction. Processing speed predicted working memory capacity, and there was evidence that working memory acted as a mediator of the effect of processing speed on sentence imitation accuracy. The findings support a refined view of working memory and processing speed as separable factors in children's sentence imitation performance. Processing speed does not independently explain sentence imitation accuracy for all sentence types, but contributes when the task requires more mental operations. Processing speed also has an indirect effect on sentence imitation by contributing to working memory capacity.

Associative learning measured with ERP predicts deferred imitation using a strict observation only design in 14 to15 month old children

Deferred imitation (DI) is an established procedure for behavioral measurement of early declarative-like memories in infancy and previous work has indicated a link between this type of memory and brain potentials in infants. The present study compared infants' memory performance in this paradigm with electrophysiological indices of associative learning. Thirty children (M = 14.5 months) participated, of which 15 (8 boys) had acceptable event-related potentials (ERP) recordings that could be included in the final analysis. Deferred imitation was measured with an observation-only procedure using three actions and a 30 min delay. ERP was recorded with a high-density electrode net (128 electrodes) during associative learning. Change scores based on Nc, a middle latency component associated with attentional processes, predicted deferred imitation performance. Thus, associative learning measured with ERP predicts deferred imitation using a strict observation only design in 14 to 15 month old children.

Utility of TMS to understand the neurobiology of speech

According to a traditional view, speech perception and production are processed largely separately in sensory and motor brain areas. Recent psycholinguistic and neuroimaging studies provide novel evidence that the sensory and motor systems dynamically interact in speech processing, by demonstrating that speech perception and imitation share regional brain activations. However, the exact nature and mechanisms of these sensorimotor interactions are not completely understood yet. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has often been used in the cognitive neurosciences, including speech research, as a complementary technique to behavioral and neuroimaging studies. Here we provide an up-to-date review focusing on TMS studies that explored speech perception and imitation. Single-pulse TMS of the primary motor cortex (M1) demonstrated a speech specific and somatotopically specific increase of excitability of the M1 lip area during speech perception (listening to speech or lip reading). A paired-coil TMS approach showed increases in effective connectivity from brain regions that are involved in speech processing to the M1 lip area when listening to speech. TMS in virtual lesion mode applied to speech processing areas modulated performance of phonological recognition and imitation of perceived speech. In summary, TMS is an innovative tool to investigate processing of speech perception and imitation. TMS studies have provided strong evidence that the sensory system is critically involved in mapping sensory input onto motor output and that the motor system plays an important role in speech perception.

Correction: Testing the potential of a virtual reality neurorehabilitation system during performance of observation, imagery and imitation of motor actions recorded by wireless functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)

Correction: Testing the potential of a virtual reality neurorehabilitation system during performance of observation, imagery and imitation of motor actions recorded by wireless functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)

Watch me if you can: imagery ability moderates observational learning effectiveness

Recent research has revealed similarities in brain activity during observational learning and motor execution. However, whilst action develops visual, motor and afferent representations during acquisition, action-observation has been proposed to only develop visual-spatial learning via visual representation. In addition, it has been suggested that the vividness of visual representations are determined by imagery ability. Thus, the purpose of the current investigation was to explore the possible moderating role of imagery ability in the effectiveness of observational learning. Participants (n = 40) were assessed on their imagery ability via the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire-2 (VMIQ-2) and then assigned to one of four groups; high imagery ability and observational learning (HIA-OL), low imagery ability and observational learning (LIA-OL), high imagery ability control (HIA-C) and low imagery ability control (LIA-C). Following group allocation all participants performed a pre-test consisting of five actual practice trials of a novel gymnastics routine. The HIA-OL and LIA-OL groups then participated in a 14 day observational learning intervention whilst the HIA-C and LIA-C groups acted as controls. Following this, participants performed a post test, which was identical in nature to the pre-test, before finally completing the VMIQ-2 again. Performance on both the pre-test and post test was evaluated by two qualified gymnastics judges. Results revealed that gymnastics performance increased from pre-test to post test for both the HIA-OL and LIA-OL groups. However, this effect was greater in the HIA-OL group suggesting that the relationship between observational learning and successful imitation performance is moderated by imagery ability.