Imitation of a Model's Hand Movements: Age Changes in Transposition of Left-Right Relations

Mapping the identity of a viewed hand in the motor system: Evidence from stimulus–response compatibility.

“…This suggests that the imitator is directly matching the identity of the observed hand to the corresponding motor representation of his or her own left and right hands. The preference for imitating in a mirror-like manner appears to decrease with increasing age (Wapner & Cirillo, 1968), which may result from the neural development of motor inhibition mechanisms.…”

“…The fact that people have a tendency to imitate an actor who is facing them in a mirror-like manner has been assumed to support this hypothesis (e.g., Avikainen, Wohlschläger, Liuhanen, Hänninen, & Hari, 2003). In the mirrorlike imitation, individuals prefer to respond with the right hand when an actor moves the left hand and with the left hand when the actor moves the right hand (Wapner & Cirillo, 1968). This suggests that the imitator is directly matching the identity of the observed hand to the corresponding motor representation of his or her own left and right hands.…”

Anatomical and spatial matching in imitation: Evidence from left and right brain-damaged patients

“…Studies on children showed that movements presented in a mirror perspective are easier to imitate (Wapner and Cirillo, 1968;Schofield, 1976;Bekkering et al, 2000;Gleissner et al, 2000). Indeed, in many circumstances anatomical imitation is more difficult than spatial imitation, because it might require the inhibition of the automatic tendency to mirror the model's movements and an additional spatial transformation of the perceived movements from the model's body to the imitator's body.…”

Initial investigations into preschoolers’ mirror-style versus transposed bodily imitation.

“…At least one study on children's prompted manual imitation in the face-to-face context, however, raises question about the universality of mirror preference. Wapner and Cirillo (1968) tested children between 8 and 18 years, and reported that older children were less likely to respond to the prompt "do as I do" with mirror-style imitation and more likely to respond with transposition. The authors interpreted this change as the result of better coordination of "their viewpoint with that of the model on the level of representation" (p. 894).…”