From over-imitation to super-copying: Adults imitate causally irrelevant aspects of tool use with higher fidelity than young children

British Journal of Psychology

Volumn 102, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 1-18

  McGuigan, Nicola ^a   Makinson, Jenny ^a   Whiten, Andrew ^b  

^a HERIOT WATT UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 79751514604     PISSN: 00071268     EISSN: 20448325     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1348/000712610X493115     Document Type: Article

References (55)

1. Abravnel, E., & DeYoung, N. G. (1997). Exploring the roles of peers and adult video models for infant imitation. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 158, 133-150. doi:
2. Anderson, D. R., & Pempek, T. A. (2005). Television and very young children. American Behavioral Scientist, 48, 505-522. doi:
3. Barr, R., & Hayne, H. (1999). Developmental changes in imitation from television during infancy. Child Development, 70, 1067-1081. doi:
4. Bekkering, H., Wohlshläger, A., & Grattis, M. (2000). Imitation of gestures in children is goal-directed. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 53A, 153-164. doi:
5. Brugger, A., Lariviere, L. A., Mumme, D. L., & Bushnell, E. W. (2007). Doing the right thing: Infants' selection of actions to imitate from observed event sequences. Child Development, 78, 806-824. doi:
6. Call, J., & Carpenter, M. (2009). Behavior: Monkeys like mimics. Science, 325, 824-825. doi:
7. Cappella, J. N., & Planalp, S. (1981). Talk and silence sequences in informal conversations: III. Interspeaker influence. Human Communication Research, 7, 117-132. doi:
8. Carpenter, M. (2006). Instrumental, social, and shared goals and intentions in imitation. In S. J. Rogers & J. H. G. Williams (Eds.), Imitation and the social mind: Autism and typical development (pp. 48-70). New York: Guilford Press.
9. Chartrand, T. L., & Bargh, J. A. (1999). The chameleon effect: The perception-behavior link and social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 893-910. doi:
10. Clément, F., Koenig, M. A., & Harris, P. L. (2004). The ontogenesis of trust. Mind and Language, 19, 360-379. doi:
11. Csibra, G., & Gergely, G. (2009). Natural pedagogy. Trends in Cognitive Science, 13, 148-153. doi:
12. Custance, D. M., Prato-Previde, E., Spiezio, C., Rigamonti, M., & Poli, M. (2006). Social learning in pig-tailed macaques and adult humans on a two-action Perspex fruit. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 120, 303-313. doi:
13. Dunn, L., Dunn, L., Whetton, C., & Pintilie, D. (1982). British Picture Vocabulary Scale. Windsor: NFER-Nelson.
14. Flynn, E., & Whiten, A. (2008). Cultural transmission of tool-use in young children: A diffusion chain study. Social Development, 17, 699-718. doi:
15. Gergely, G., Bekkering, H., & Király, I. (2002). Rational imitation in preverbal infants. Nature, 415, 755.
16. Gergely, G., & Csibra, G. (2006). Sylvia's recipe: The role of imitation and pedagogy in the transmission of cultural knowledge. In N. J. Enfield & S. C. Levenson (Eds.), Roots of human sociality: Culture, cognition, and human interaction (pp. 229-255). Oxford: Berg Publishers.
17. Gergely, G., Egyed, K., & Kiraly, I. (2007). On pedagogy. Developmental Science, 10, 139-146. doi:
18. Gleissner, B., Meltzoff, A. N., & Bekkering, H. (2000). Children's coding of human action: Cognitive factors influencing imitation in 3-year-olds. Developmental Science, 3, 405-414. doi:
19. Hannah, E., & Meltzoff, A. N. (1993). Peer imitation by toddlers in laboratory, home, and day-care contexts: Implications for social learning and memory. Developmental Psychology, 29, 701-710. doi:
20. Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1994). Emotional contagion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
21. Hayne, H., Herbert, J., & Simcock, G. (2003). Imitation from television by 24- and 30- month-olds. Developmental Science, 6, 254-261. doi:
22. Horner, V., & Whiten, A. (2005). Causal knowledge and imitation/emulation switching in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and children (Homo sapiens). Animal Cognition, 8, 164-181. doi:
23. Horner, V., Whiten, A., Flynn, E., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2006). Faithful replication of foraging techniques along cultural transmission chains by chimpanzees and children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 103, 13878-13883. doi:
24. Horowitz, A. C. (2003). Do humans ape? Or do apes human? Imitation and intention in humans (Homo sapiens) and other animals. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 117, 325-336. doi:
25. Jaswal, V. K., & Neely, L. A. (2006). Adults don't always know best: Preschoolers use past reliability over age when learning. Psychological Science, 17, 757-758. doi:
26. Koenig, M. A., Clément, F., & Harris, P. L. (2004). Trust in testimony: Children's use of true and false statements. Psychological Science, 15, 694-698. doi:
27. Koenig, M. A., & Harris, P. L. (2005). Preschoolers mistrust ignorant and inaccurate speakers. Child Development, 76, 1261-1277. doi:
28. Lyons, D. E., Young, A. G., & Keil, F. C. (2007). The hidden structure of overimitation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104, 19751-19756. doi:
29. McCall, R. B., Park, R. D., & Kavanugh, R. D. (1977). Imitation of live and video models by children one to three years of age. Monographs of the Society for Research on Child Development, 42, (Serial No. 173).
30. McGuigan, N., & Graham, M. (in press). Cultural transmission of irrelevant tool actions in diffusion chains of 3- and 5-year-old children. European Journal of Developmental Psychology. doi:
31. McGuigan, N., & Whiten, A. (2009). Emulation and over-emulation in the social learning of causally opaque versus causally transparent tool use by 23- and 30-month-old children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104, 367-381. doi:
32. McGuigan, N., Whiten, A., Flynn, E. F., & Horner, V. (2007). Imitation of causally necessary versus unnecessary tool use by 3- and 5-year-old children. Cognitive Development, 22, 356-364. doi:
33. Meltzoff, A. N. (1995). Understanding the intentions of others: Re-enactment of intended acts by 18-month-old children. Developmental Psychology, 31, 838-850. doi:
34. Nielsen, M. (2006). Copying actions and copying outcomes: Social learning through the second year. Developmental Psychology, 42, 555-565. doi:
35. Nielsen, M. (2008). The social motivation for social learning. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31, 33. doi:
36. Nielsen, M. (in press). The imitative behaviour of children and chimpanzees: A window on the transmission of cultural traditions. Primatologie.
37. Nielsen, M., Simcock, G., & Jenkins, L. (2008). The effect of social engagement on 24-month-olds' imitation from live and televised models. Developmental Science, 11, 722-731. doi:
38. Nielsen, M., & Tomaselli, K. (in press). Over-imitation in Kalahari Bushmen children and the origins of human cultural cognition. Psychological Science.
39. Neumann, R., & Strack, F. (2000). Mood contagion: The automatic transfer of mood between persons. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 211-223. doi:
40. Owens, C. R., & Ascione, F. R. (1991). Effects of the model's age, perceived similarity, and familiarity in children's donating. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 152, 341-357.
41. Piaget, J. (1962). The language and thought of the child. London: Kegan Paul.
42. Richerson, P. J., & Boyd, R. (2005). Not by genes alone: How culture transformed human evolution. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
43. Ryalls, B. O., Gul, R. E., & Ryalls, K. R. (2000). Infant imitation of peer and adult models: Evidence for a peer model advantage. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 46, 188-202.
44. Schwier, C., van Maanen, C., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2006). Rational imitation in 12-month-old infants. Infancy, 10, 303-311. doi:
45. Tennie, C., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2009). Ratchetting up the ratchet: On the evolution of cumulative culture. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B, 364, 2406-2416. doi:
46. van Barren, R. B., Holland, R. W., Kawakami, K., & van Knippenberg, A. (2004). Mimicry and pro-social behaviour. Psychological Science, 15, 71-74. doi:
47. van Barren, R. B., Holland, R. W., Steenaert, B., & van Knippenberg, A. (2003). Mimicry for money: Behavioral consequences of imitation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39, 393-398. doi:
48. VanderBorght, M., & Jaswal, V. K. (2009). Who knows best? Preschoolers sometimes prefer child informants over adult informants. Infant and Child Development, 18, 61-71. doi:
49. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
50. Whiten, A. (2009). Ape behaviour and the origins of human culture. In P. Kappeler & J. Silk (Eds.), Mind the gap: Tracing the origins of human universals (pp. 429-450). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
51. Whiten, A., Flynn, F., Brown, K., & Lee, T. (2006). Imitation of hierarchical structure in actions by young children. Developmental Science, 9, 574-582. doi:
52. Whiten, A., & Ham, R. (1992). On the nature and evolution of imitation in the animal kingdom: Reappraisal of a century of research. In P. J. B. Slater, J. S. Rosenblatt, C. Beer, & M. Milinski (Eds.), On the nature and evolution of imitation in the animal kingdom: Reappraisal of a century of research (pp. 239-283). New York: Academic.
53. Whiten, A., McGuigan, N., Marshall-Pescini, S., & Hopper, L. M. (2009). Emulation, imitation, overimitation and the scope of culture for child and chimpanzee. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B, 364, 2417-2428. doi:
54. Williamson, R. A., Meltzoff, A. N., & Markman, E. M. (2008). Prior experiences and perceived efficacy influence 3-year-olds' imitation. Developmental Psychology, 44, 275-285. doi:
55. Wohlschläger, A., Gattis, M., & Bekkering, H. (2003). Action generation and action perception in imitation: An instance of the ideomotor principle. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B, 358, 501-515. doi: