Reasoning about ‘irrational’ actions: When intentional movements cannot be explained, the movements themselves are seen as the goal

Schachner, Adena; Carey, Susan

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2013.07.006

Cited by 70 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…This need not implicate an emulation-based approach, as the precise sequence of actions demonstrated may still be copied but the aim is to bring about a tangible, functional outcome. By contrast, when imitating conventional behavior, the focal point of imitation is the process [60] and the way a behavior ought to be executed [61]. Conventional behavior tends to be associated with higher imitative fidelity than instrumental behavior [14][15][16][17].…”

Section: The Functions Of Ritual In Social Group Behaviormentioning

confidence: 88%

Imitation and Innovation: The Dual Engines of Cultural Learning

Legare

Nielsen

2015

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

387

337

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Imitation and innovation work in tandem to support cultural learning in children and facilitate our capacity for cumulative culture. Here we propose an integrated theoretical account of how the unique demands of acquiring instrumental skills and cultural conventions provide insight into when children imitate, when they innovate, and to what degree. For instrumental learning, with an increase in experience, high fidelity imitation decreases and innovation increases. By contrast, for conventional learning, imitative fidelity stays high, regardless of experience, and innovation stays low. We synthesize cutting edge research on the development of imitative flexibility and innovation to provide insight into the social learning mechanisms underpinning the uniquely human mind.

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Section: The Functions Of Ritual In Social Group Behaviormentioning

confidence: 88%

Imitation and Innovation: The Dual Engines of Cultural Learning

Legare

Nielsen

2015

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

387

337

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Another possible interpretation of our data is that children imitate more precisely when they are unsure about the goal of an action sequence. Past research has found that the presence or absence of a salient end-goal of an action sequence influences imitative fidelity of behavioral means versus ends to the means Byrne & Russon, 1998;Carpenter et al, 2005;Schachner & Carey, 2013;Williamson & Markman, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We acknowledge that goal opacity may indeed increase imitative fidelity (Schachner & Carey, 2013). Yet there is also evidence from research on overimitation that children will imitate intentional but causally-irrelevant actions with high fidelity, even when told explicitly (and repeatedly) what the (instrumental) goal is (Lyons et al, 2007).…”

Section: Conventional Conditionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Imitative flexibility and the development of cultural learning

Legare¹,

et al. 2015

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“…Alternatively, it could be interpreted as a movement made for its own sake, as part of a dance or an exercise. Schachner and Carey (2013) have found that when an agent produces so-called irrational movements (e.g., moving toward a goal and then away from it), adults typically interpret those movements as movement performed for the sake of movement. If children view gestures as irrational movements, they may think of gesture as movement for its own sake.…”

Section: Learning From Gesturementioning

confidence: 99%

Learning from gesture: How early does it happen?

2015

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Iconic gesture is a rich source of information for conveying ideas to learners. However, in order to learn from iconic gesture, a learner must be able to interpret its iconic form--a nontrivial task for young children. Our study explores how young children interpret iconic gesture and whether they can use it to infer a previously unknown action. In Study 1, 2- and 3-year-old children were shown iconic gestures that illustrated how to operate a novel toy to achieve a target action. Children in both age groups successfully figured out the target action more often after seeing an iconic gesture demonstration than after seeing no demonstration. However, the 2-year-olds (but not the 3-year-olds) figured out fewer target actions after seeing an iconic gesture demonstration than after seeing a demonstration of an incomplete-action and, in this sense, were not yet experts at interpreting gesture. Nevertheless, both age groups seemed to understand that gesture could convey information that can be used to guide their own actions, and that gesture is thus not movement for its own sake. That is, the children in both groups produced the action displayed in gesture on the object itself, rather than producing the action in the air (in other words, they rarely imitated the experimenter’s gesture as it was performed). Study 2 compared 2-year-olds’ performance following iconic vs. point gesture demonstrations. Iconic gestures led children to discover more target actions than point gestures, suggesting that iconic gesture does more than just focus a learner’s attention--,it conveys substantive information about how to solve the problem, information that is accessible to children as young as 2. The ability to learn from iconic gesture is thus in place by toddlerhood and, although still fragile, allows children to process gesture, not as meaningless movement, but as an intentional communicative representation.

show abstract

Reasoning about ‘irrational’ actions: When intentional movements cannot be explained, the movements themselves are seen as the goal

Cited by 70 publications

References 47 publications

Imitation and Innovation: The Dual Engines of Cultural Learning

Imitation and Innovation: The Dual Engines of Cultural Learning

Imitative flexibility and the development of cultural learning

Learning from gesture: How early does it happen?

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