Imitating Sounds: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding Vocal Imitation

Abstract

Vocal imitation is often described as a specialized form of learning that facilitates social communication and that involves less cognitively sophisticated mechanisms than more "perceptually opaque" types of imitation. Here, we present an alternative perspective. Considering current evidence from adult mammals, we note that vocal imitation often does not lead to learning and can involve a wide range of cognitive processes. We further suggest that sound imitation capacities may have evolved in certain mammals, such as cetaceans and humans, to enhance both the perception of ongoing actions and the prediction of future events, rather than to facilitate mate attraction or the formation of social bonds. The ability of adults to voluntarily imitate sounds is better described as a cognitive skill than as a communicative learning mechanism. Sound imitation abilities are gradually acquired through practice and require the coordination of multiple perceptual-motor and cognitive mechanisms for representing and generating sounds. Understanding these mechanisms is critical to explaining why relatively few mammals are capable of flexibly imitating sounds, and why individuals vary in their ability to imitate sounds. Keywords: mimicry; copying; social learning; singing; emulation; imitatible; convergence; imitativenessIn his seminal text, Habitat and Instinct, Lloyd Morgan (1896, p. 166) describes two general kinds of imitation: instinctive imitation and intelligent or voluntary imitation. The examples he provides of intelligent imitation mostly involve reproducing sounds-a child copies words used by his companions, a mockingbird imitates the songs of 32 other bird species, a jay imitates the neighing of a horse, and so on. In fact, most of the examples of "imitation proper" that Morgan provides consist of birds reproducing the sounds of other species. Similarly, Romanes (1884) focuses almost exclusively on reports of birds imitating songs, music, and speech in his discussion of imitation. These classic portrayals of vocal reproductions as providing the best and clearest examples of imitation stand in stark contrast to current psychological discussions of imitation, which often classify examples such as those given by Romanes and Morgan as non-imitative performances that merely resemble actual imitation (Byrne, 2002;Heyes, 1996). When did phenomena that were once considered archetypal examples of voluntary imitation transform into a footnote of modern cognitive theories? Was some discovery made that fundamentally changed our scientific understanding of the processes underlying vocal imitation? Have psychologists or biologists succeeded in explaining what vocal imitation is and how it works to the point where little can be gained from further study? Or, have theoretical assumptions led scientists to underestimate the cognitive mechanisms required for an individual to be able to flexibly imitate sounds?In the present article, we attempt to identify what exactly vocal imitation entails, and to assess whether current explanatory fr...

Vocal Imitations of Non-Vocal Sounds

“…Several other species (birds, cetaceans) display imitative vocalizations of conspecifics or other species, but this ability is in fact rare [10]. It has been a matter of debate as to whether imitations result from general learning or specialized mechanisms [88].…”

“…In fact, imitative behaviors have been reported in birds and cetaceans and are widespread in humans [8–10]. Imitations are extremely important during infants’ development and learning of skills, customs, and behaviors [11–13], and occur in all sorts of situations in adults.…”

“…may unintentionally match those of another person she interacts with [14–17]. Regarding vocal imitations, the more skilled imitators are adults: professional artists specialize in impersonating famous characters [18], and most adults can replicate a melody with a good accuracy [19, 20], thus suggesting that vocally imitating sounds is skill honed through experience [10]. …”

“…the vocal apparatus of one person) with another similar system (the vocal apparatus of another person). As such, imitating a behavior can be conceived as retrieving the motor parameters necessary to produce the outcome of the system [21] (but see Mercado et al, 2014 for a discussion [10]). However, the kitchen paper exemplifies a different phenomenon: reproducing some features of the outcome of a system (e.g.…”

Spontaneous vocal matching in mothers and their hearing impaired infants with cochlear implants : a quantitative analysis.

“…Vocal imitation is defined as "an attempt, intentional or incidental, to match an auditory event with the vocal motor system" (Mercado, Mantell, & Pfordresher, 2014). The purpose of this study is to 2 investigate how mothers and infants, both with normal hearing (NH) and with hearing loss (HL), imitate each other on a segmental level during spontaneous speech.…”