‘Over-imitation’: A review and appraisal of a decade of research

Hoehl, Stefanie; Keupp, Stefanie; Schleihauf, Hanna; McGuigan, Nicola; Buttelmann, David; Whiten, Andrew

doi:10.1016/j.dr.2018.12.002

Cited by 203 publications

(168 citation statements)

References 119 publications

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“…This effort is partially motivated by the desire to determine which aspects of imitation may be more culturally invariant and which are more variable and dependent on cultural context. A range of topics within social learning, using different paradigms, have been tested using non-Western samples (e.g., Itakura et al, 2008;Nielsen and Tomaselli, 2010;Nielsen et al, 2014;Berl and Hewlett, 2015;DiYanni et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2015;Clegg and Legare, 2016;Corriveau et al, 2017;Taniguchi and Sanefuji, 2017;Hoehl et al, 2019;Li et al, 2019). However, little research has investigated the imitation of preschool children born and raised within China, a country that more than 1 billion people (for exceptions see Wang et al, 2015;Li et al, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imitation in Chinese Preschool Children: Influence of Prior Self-Experience and Pedagogical Cues on the Imitation of Novel Acts in a Non-Western Culture

Wang

Meltzoff

2020

Front. Psychol.

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Both prior experience and pedagogical cues modulate Western children's imitation. However, these factors have not been systematically explored together within a single study. This paper explored how these factors individually and together influence imitation using 4-year-old children born and reared in mainland China (N = 210)-a country that contains almost one-fifth of the world's population, and in which childhood imitation is under-studied using experimental methodology. The behavior of children in this culture is of special interest to theory because traditional East Asian culture places high value on conformity and fitting in with the group. Thus, high-fidelity imitation is emphasized in the local culture. This value, practice, or norm may be recognized by children at a young age and influence their imitative performance. In this study, we crossed prior self-experience and pedagogical cues, yielding four demonstration groups in addition to a control group. This design allowed us to investigate the degree to which Chinese preschoolers' imitation was modulated by the two experimental factors. High-fidelity imitation was significantly modulated by prior self-experience but not by pedagogical cues, as measured by the number of novel acts imitated and also the serial order of these acts. This study (i) expands our understanding of factors that modulate imitation of novel behaviors in preschoolers and (ii) contributes to efforts to broaden research beyond Western societies to enrich our theories, particularly regarding social learning and imitation. Imitation is a key mechanism in the acquisition of culturally appropriate behaviors, mannerisms, and norms but who, what, and when children imitate is malleable. This study points to both cross-cultural invariants and variations to provide a fuller picture of the scope and functions of childhood imitation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imitation in Chinese Preschool Children: Influence of Prior Self-Experience and Pedagogical Cues on the Imitation of Novel Acts in a Non-Western Culture

Wang

Meltzoff

2020

Front. Psychol.

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“…Human social learning itself is flexible and sensitive to context and content (Henrich & McElreath, ; Hoehl et al, ). In experimental studies, children imitate in ways that are statistically sound across multiple demonstrations and demonstrators (Buchsbaum, Gopnik, Griffiths, & Shafto, ; Evans, Laland, Carpenter, & Kendal, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One type of human imitation has defied simple functional explanation: copying causally irrelevant actions (Nielsen, Mushin, Tomaselli, & Whiten, ; Whiten et al, ), or what Lyons, Young, and Keil () termed ‘overimitation’ (we will use the more neutral phrase irrelevant‐action imitation, but see Hoehl et al, for defense of the term ‘overimitation’). Irrelevant‐action imitation appears to be a derived social learning capacity in humans, in that it is not shown by chimpanzees (Horner & Whiten, ), bonobos (Clay & Tennie, ), or orangutans (Nielsen & Susianto, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Irrelevant‐action imitation appears to be a derived social learning capacity in humans, in that it is not shown by chimpanzees (Horner & Whiten, ), bonobos (Clay & Tennie, ), or orangutans (Nielsen & Susianto, ). Irrelevant‐action imitation is evident in all human populations where it has been investigated (Hoehl et al, ), including a variety of populations from North America and Western Europe (see Over & Carpenter, ; Whiten et al, ), and single studies among Kalahari Bushmen (Nielsen & Tomaselli, ), Western Aboriginal children in Australia (Nielsen, Mushin, et al, ), the Aka and Ngandu of the Congo basin (Berl & Hewlett, ), and preschool children in Japan (Taniguchi & Sanefuji, ). Irrelevant‐action imitation appears robust in many experimental designs that aim to motivate selective copying (e.g., Chudek et al, ; Keupp, Behne, & Rakoczy, ; Lyons et al, ; for review see Over & Carpenter, ), and occurs even when participants are unaware they are part of a study (Whiten et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Irrelevant‐action imitation is short‐term and contextual: Evidence from two under‐studied populations

Kline

Gervais

Moya

et al. 2019

Developmental Science

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Across the lifespan and across populations, humans ‘overimitate’ causally unnecessary behaviors. Such irrelevant‐action imitation facilitates faithful cultural transmission, but its immediate benefits to the imitator are controversial. Over short time scales, irrelevant‐action imitation may bootstrap artifact exploration or interpersonal affiliation, and over longer time scales it may facilitate acquisition of either causal models or social conventions. To investigate these putative functions, we recruited community samples from two under‐studied populations: Yasawa, Fiji, and Huatasani, Peru. We use a two‐action puzzle box: first after a video demonstration, and again one month later. Treating age as a continuous variable, we reveal divergent developmental trajectories across sites. Yasawans (44 adults, M = 39.9 years, 23 women; 42 children, M = 9.8 years, 26 girls) resemble documented patterns, with irrelevant‐action imitation increasing across childhood and plateauing in adulthood. In contrast, Huatasaneños (48 adults, M = 37.6 years, 33 women; 47 children, M = 9.3 years, 13 girls) evince a parabolic trajectory: adults at the site show the lowest irrelevant‐action imitation of any demographic set in our sample. In addition, all age sets in both populations reduce their irrelevant actions at Time 2, but do not reduce their relevant‐action imitation or goal attainment. Taken together, and considering the local cultural contexts, our results suggest that irrelevant‐action imitation serves a short‐term function and is sensitive to the social context of the demonstration.

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“…Indeed, substantial evidence has suggested that both the tendency to copy the form of an action and to copy its goal have roots early in life (Meltzoff, ; Over & Carpenter, ; Užgiris, ; Want & Harris, ). A fast‐growing literature has documented that after young children watch an adult demonstrating a sequence of actions on an artifact, they tend to “overimitate”—to faithfully copy all actions even when some appear inefficient or irrelevant (Hoehl et al, ; Horner & Whiten, ; Lyons, Young, & Keil, ). In other lines of research, however, infants and children have also demonstrated the ability to flexibly modify socially demonstrated actions, for example by selectively copying those that are goal‐directed or causally relevant (Carpenter, Akhtar, & Tomasello, ; DiYanni & Kelemen, ; Williamson et al, ), or deviate to produce novel solutions to the same goal (Carr, Kendal, & Flynn, ; Neldner et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ontogeny of cumulative culture: Individual toddlers vary in faithful imitation and goal emulation

Yu¹,

Kushnir

2019

Developmental Science

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The success of human culture depends on early emerging mechanisms of social learning, which include the ability to acquire opaque cultural knowledge through faithful imitation, as well as the ability to advance culture through flexible discovery of new means to goal attainment. This study explores whether this mixture of faithful imitation and goal emulation is based in part on individual differences which emerge early in ontogeny. Experimental measurements and parental reports were collected for a group of 2‐year‐old children (N = 48, age = 23–32 months) on their imitative behavior as well as other aspects of cognitive and social development. Results revealed individual differences in children's imitative behavior across trials and tasks which were best characterized by a model that included two behavioral routines; one corresponding to faithful imitation, and one to goal emulation. Moreover, individual differences in faithful imitation and goal emulation were correlated with individual differences in theory of mind, prosocial behavior, and temperament. These findings were discussed in terms of their implications for understanding the mechanisms of social learning, ontogeny of cumulative culture, and the benefit of analyzing individual differences for developmental experiments.

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‘Over-imitation’: A review and appraisal of a decade of research

Cited by 203 publications

References 119 publications

Imitation in Chinese Preschool Children: Influence of Prior Self-Experience and Pedagogical Cues on the Imitation of Novel Acts in a Non-Western Culture

Imitation in Chinese Preschool Children: Influence of Prior Self-Experience and Pedagogical Cues on the Imitation of Novel Acts in a Non-Western Culture

Irrelevant‐action imitation is short‐term and contextual: Evidence from two under‐studied populations

The ontogeny of cumulative culture: Individual toddlers vary in faithful imitation and goal emulation

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