Does Neonatal Imitation Exist? Insights From a Meta-Analysis of 336 Effect Sizes

Davis, Jacqueline; Redshaw, Jonathan; Suddendorf, Thomas; Nielsen, Mark; Kennedy‐Costantini, Siobhan; Oostenbroek, Janine; Slaughter, Virginia

doi:10.1177/1745691620959834

Cited by 33 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 135 publications

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“…Previous failures to find neonatal imitation have been attributed to methodological factors, for example the use of an inappropriate model, an inadequate response interval, or suboptimal statistical procedures. A recent meta-analysis of neonatal imitation research, encompassing 336 effect sizes dating back to 1977, sought and did not find a modulating influence of 13 methodological factors that had been previously cited as reasons for replication failure [133]. However, the meta-analysis did find a modulating effect of 'researcher affiliation'; a small number of laboratories were more likely than others to find large positive effects.…”

Section: Imitation Is Not In Our Genesmentioning

confidence: 90%

Sinking In: The Peripheral Baldwinisation of Human Cognition

Heyes

Chater

Dwyer

2020

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

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The Baldwin effect is a hypothetical process in which a learned response to environmental change evolves a genetic basis. Modelling has shown that the Baldwin effect offers a plausible and elegant explanation for the emergence of complex behavioural traits, but there is little direct empirical evidence for its occurrence. We highlight experimental evidence of the Baldwin effect and argue that it acts preferentially on peripheral rather than on central cognitive processes. Careful scrutiny of research on taste-aversion and fear learning, language, and imitation indicates that their efficiency depends on adaptively specialised input and output processes: analogues of scanner and printer interfaces that feed information to core inference processes and structure their behavioural expression. Sinking InWhich features of the human mind, now genetically inherited, were once the products of learning? This question relates to the Baldwin effect (see Glossary)a process in which an initially learned response to environmental change acquires a genetic basis [1][2][3][4]. This process is also known, sometimes in a misleading way [5], as organic selection [1], genetic assimilation [6], and experiential canalization [7]. Whatever it is called, Baldwin's hypothesis postulates that, at the population level, learned characteristics can 'sink in'; they can become part of what offspring inherit organically from their parents.In the following we bring empirical research from cognitive science to bear on the hypothesis that some aspects of human cognition have sunk inthat they were initially learned and are now genetically inherited. We argue that there is good empirical evidence for this hypothesis regarding peripheral cognitive mechanisms (i.e., input or perceptual systems, and output or action systems, both modulated by attention and motivation), but not for the complex and interlocking central processes, involving inference and memory, that have durable effects on the relationships between perception and action [8] (Figure 1, Key Figure).After introducing the Baldwin effect, we next focus on preparedness [9,10]. For 50 years, experimental psychologists have investigated the preparedness of mechanisms involved in learning taste aversions and fears, and how these mechanisms have been specialised by evolution to do their jobs well. We argue that this research not only provides much-needed empirical evidence of Baldwinisation but also illuminates the targets of selection. Specifically, research on preparedness suggests that, across species, Baldwinisation has had a much greater impact on peripheral than on central cognitive mechanisms [11]. There has been genetic assimilation of learning-induced changes in perception, attention, motivation, and motor controlprocesses that modulate inputs to, and outputs from, the core inference processes of the brainbut little if any change to the structure of central processors themselves. We then extend the analysis to language and imitation, human faculties that are widely thought to have been gene...

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Section: Imitation Is Not In Our Genesmentioning

confidence: 90%

Sinking In: The Peripheral Baldwinisation of Human Cognition

Heyes

Chater

Dwyer

2020

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

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“…Meltzoff and Moore's (1977) study received immediate methodological and empirical pushback (Anisfeld, 1979;Jacobson & Kagan, 1979;Masters, 1979), but this did not lead the field towards a shared empirical specification of newborn imitation. The remarkable result is that over 40 years of research and disagreement (e.g., Anisfeld, 1996;Jones, 2009;Meltzoff, 2017;Oostenbroek et al, 2016;Ray & Heyes, 2011) have failed to produce a consensus on whether the phenomenon actually exists (Davis et al, 2021).…”

Section: Empirical Underspecification Hinders Consensus On Newborn Imitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why most psychological research findings are not even wrong

Scheel¹

2021

Preprint

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Psychology’s replication crisis is typically conceptualised as the insight that the published literature contains a worrying amount of unreplicable, false-positive findings. At the same time, meta-scientific attempts to assess the crisis in more detail have reported substantial difficulties to identify unambiguous definitions of the scientific claims in published articles and to determine how they are connected to the presented evidence. I argue that most claims in the literature are so critically underspecified that attempts to empirically evaluate them are doomed to failure — they are not even wrong. Meta-scientists should beware of the flawed assumption that the psychological literature is a collection of well-defined claims. To move beyond the crisis, psychologists must reconsider and rebuild the conceptual basis of their hypotheses before trying to test them.

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“…Face-to-face interactions are important features of many primate social relationships (Dettmer et al, 2016) and affect-matching behaviours like facial mimicry may enable social bonding and reflect relationship quality . Neonatal mimicry of adult facial displays, akin to human neonate studies by Meltzoff and Moore (1977;but see Davis et al, 2021), has been seen in small samples of neonatal chimpanzees (e.g., Myowa, 1996;Myowa-Yamakoshi et al, 2004). Similar to human findings, mimicry responses disappeared after two months (Myowa, 1996;Myowa-Yamakoshi et al, 2004).…”

Section: Mimicry In Primatesmentioning

confidence: 61%

Primate empathy: A flexible and multi-componential phenomenon

Js¹,

Ce²,

Clay³

2021

Preprint

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Empathy, the capacity to share and understand others’ states, is crucial for facilitating enduring social relationships and managing ingroup and outgroup dynamics. Despite being at the center of much scrutiny and debate in human research, the evolutionary foundations of empathy remain relatively opaque. Moreover, inconsistencies remain regarding definitions and theoretical models, leading to discrepancies in how to systematically represent and address empathy and understand its evolutionary basis. As a complex, multi-dimensional phenomenon, certain components of empathy are likely to be evolutionarily ancient whereas others may be more derived. As our closest living relatives, nonhuman primates provide an opportunity to explore the evolutionary origins of empathy and its subcomponents. Due to the rich diversity of primate societies, we can comparatively study evidence of affective responding and empathic behaviour within the context of different social dynamics and organisation. Although studies have been conducted on individual primate species, especially the great apes, direct species comparisons are rare. Here we examine the literature investigating evidence for empathy among primates focussing on its underlying affective and cognitive components. In reviewing the literature, we also highlight species that need more coverage to enhance our overall understanding of how empathy has evolved within the primate order.

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Does Neonatal Imitation Exist? Insights From a Meta-Analysis of 336 Effect Sizes

Cited by 33 publications

References 135 publications

Sinking In: The Peripheral Baldwinisation of Human Cognition

Sinking In: The Peripheral Baldwinisation of Human Cognition

Why most psychological research findings are not even wrong

Primate empathy: A flexible and multi-componential phenomenon

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