The cognitive structure of goal emulation during the preschool years

Subiaul, Francys; Patterson, Eric; Barr, Rachel

doi:10.1111/bjdp.12111

Cited by 11 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…Theoretically, the safety hypothesis can accord with the concept of emulation, which emphasizes the ability in humans to learn from the goals or intentions of others, whatever the specific sequential actions taken to attain these goals (Behne, Carpenter, Call, & Tomasello, 2005;Meltzoff, 1995;Subiaul, Patterson, & Barr, 2016). In this view, an interrupted or a Arnaud Badets and Arnaud Boutin contributed equally to this work.…”

Section: Learning Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

A safety mechanism for observational learning

2017

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This empirical article presents the first evidence of a "safety mechanism" based on an observational-learning paradigm. It is accepted that during observational learning, a person can use different strategies to learn a motor skill, but it is unknown whether the learner is able to circumvent the encoding of an uncompleted observed skill. In this study, participants were tested in a dyadic protocol in which an observer watched a participant practicing two different motor sequences during a learning phase. During this phase, one of the two motor sequences was interrupted by a stop signal that precluded motor learning. The results of the subsequent retention test revealed that both groups learned the two motor sequences, but only the physical practice group showed worse performance for the interrupted sequence. The observers were consequently able to use a safety strategy to learn both sequences equally. Our findings are discussed in light of the implications of the action observation network for sequence learning and the cognitive mechanisms of error-based observation.

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Section: Learning Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

A safety mechanism for observational learning

2017

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“…This approach differs from most comparative studies, which have made strict categorical distinctions between imitation—defined as learning and faithfully reproducing a demonstrated response [ 42 ]—and other forms of social learning—defined broadly as any socially-biased learning [ 12 , 43 ]. In that view, social learning—in addition to imitation—also includes: emulation [ 9 , 10 , 11 ], whereby an individual copies the end-result [ 44 ], object movements [ 45 ] or intention [ 16 ] of the model’s actions without copying the means demonstrated [ 46 ]; Stimulus/local enhancement [ 44 , 47 ], where an observer’s attention is directed to a particular object(s) or location(s) but learning results from happenstance or trial-and-error learning; and response facilitation or priming [ 12 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ], where previously learned sensory-motor schemas are activated resulting in the associated motor response being released in the presence of the corresponding visual stimuli [ 52 ]. This phenomenon has also been referred to as automatic imitation [ 53 ] and familiar imitation [ 40 , 46 , 54 , 55 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast to these earlier analyses, the present review assumes that imitation is not mediated by a single, unitary mechanism operating at the exclusion of other forms of social learning [ 56 ]. Rather, the framework used here assumes that imitation is mosaic and as such there are multiple, specialized mechanisms mediating different forms of social and imitation learning in particular tasks and content domains [ 40 , 46 , 57 ]. These different mechanisms may act independently or in concert with one another depending on the experimental context.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What’s Special about Human Imitation? A Comparison with Enculturated Apes

Subiaul

2016

Behavioral Sciences

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What, if anything, is special about human imitation? An evaluation of enculturated apes’ imitation skills, a “best case scenario” of non-human apes’ imitation performance, reveals important similarities and differences between this special population of apes and human children. Candidates for shared imitation mechanisms include the ability to imitate various familiar transitive responses and object–object actions that involve familiar tools. Candidates for uniquely derived imitation mechanisms include: imitating novel transitive actions and novel tool-using responses as well as imitating opaque or intransitive gestures, regardless of familiarity. While the evidence demonstrates that enculturated apes outperform non-enculturated apes and perform more like human children, all apes, regardless of rearing history, generally excel at imitating familiar, over-rehearsed responses and are poor, relative to human children, at imitating novel, opaque or intransitive responses. Given the similarities between the sensory and motor systems of preschool age human children and non-human apes, it is unlikely that differences in sensory input and/or motor-output alone explain the observed discontinuities in imitation performance. The special rearing history of enculturated apes—including imitation-specific training—further diminishes arguments suggesting that differences are experience-dependent. Here, it is argued that such differences are best explained by distinct, specialized mechanisms that have evolved for copying rules and responses in particular content domains. Uniquely derived social and imitation learning mechanisms may represent adaptations for learning novel communicative gestures and complex tool-use. Given our species’ dependence on both language and tools, mechanisms that accelerated learning in these domains are likely to have faced intense selective pressures, starting with the earliest of human ancestors.

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“… 1 It is important to emphasize that combining different imitative responses is not equivalent to emulation, which is characterized by selective imitation or replicating either the model’s intended goal or the achieved end-states using idiosyncratic means ( Subiaul et al, 2015 ). In summative imitation, two or more demonstrated responses are faithfully imitated together.…”

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confidence: 99%

Imitation by combination: preschool age children evidence summative imitation in a novel problem-solving task

et al. 2015

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Children are exceptional, even ‘super,’ imitators but comparatively poor independent problem-solvers or innovators. Yet, imitation and innovation are both necessary components of cumulative cultural evolution. Here, we explored the relationship between imitation and innovation by assessing children’s ability to generate a solution to a novel problem by imitating two different action sequences demonstrated by two different models, an example of imitation by combination, which we refer to as “summative imitation.” Children (N = 181) from 3 to 5 years of age and across three experiments were tested in a baseline condition or in one of six demonstration conditions, varying in the number of models and opening techniques demonstrated. Across experiments, more than 75% of children evidenced summative imitation, opening both compartments of the problem box and retrieving the reward hidden in each. Generally, learning different actions from two different models was as good (and in some cases, better) than learning from 1 model, but the underlying representations appear to be the same in both demonstration conditions. These results show that summative imitation not only facilitates imitation learning but can also result in new solutions to problems, an essential feature of innovation and cumulative culture.

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The cognitive structure of goal emulation during the preschool years

Cited by 11 publications

References 76 publications

A safety mechanism for observational learning

A safety mechanism for observational learning

What’s Special about Human Imitation? A Comparison with Enculturated Apes

Imitation by combination: preschool age children evidence summative imitation in a novel problem-solving task

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