Imitation as behaviour parsing

Abstract

Non-human great apes appear to be able to acquire elaborate skills partly by imitation, raising the possibility of the transfer of skill by imitation in animals that have only rudimentary mentalizing capacities: in contrast to the frequent assumption that imitation depends on prior understanding of others' intentions. Attempts to understand the apes' behaviour have led to the development of a purely mechanistic model of imitation, the 'behaviour parsing' model, in which the statistical regularities that are inevitable in planned behaviour are used to decipher the organization of another agent's behaviour, and thence to imitate parts of it. Behaviour can thereby be understood statistically in terms of its correlations (circumstances of use, effects on the environment) without understanding of intentions or the everyday physics of cause-andeffect. Thus, imitation of complex, novel behaviour may not require mentalizing, but conversely behaviour parsing may be a necessary preliminary to attributing intention and cause.

From visuo-motor interactions to imitation learning: Behavioural and brain imaging studies

“…In associative sequence learning, this generality is programmatically wide, with the risk of losing sight of human-specific imitation capabilities. Byrne (2003Byrne ( , 2005 has made a strong case for imitation as a special faculty. He suggests that the capacity for imitation learning, requiring powerful cognitive processes of de-and re-composing complex behaviour, might have co-evolved with the perceptual decomposition power of the mirror neuron system that had originally evolved in response to social needs, namely action understanding (Byrne, 2005; see also Arbib, 2005;Lyons, Santos, & Keil, 2006).…”

The impact of imitative versus emulative learning mechanisms on artifactual variation: implications for the evolution of material culture

“…Distinctions between different forms or 68 ‗mechanisms' of social learning are ultimately based on distinctions between the precise 69 means by which one individual ‗copies' aspects of another individual's behavior (Whiten et 70 al., 2009b). One distinct form of social learning is ‗imitation' (Thorndike,1898), which is 71 differentiated from other forms of social learning mechanisms because the social learner 72 copies the precise details and sequences of behavioral actions employed by a ‗model' (Heyes,73 1993; Byrne, 2003;Tomasello et al, 1993). Hence, a straightforward operational definition of 74 imitation (see e.g., Whiten et al, 2009b) states simply that it is the copying of demonstrated 75 behavior(s) exhibited by a model (e.g., the actions involved in the production of an artifact).…”

The Performance of a Higher Order Invariance Idiographic Filter in Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Cross Sectional and Longitudinal Data

“…Measurement invariance is, therefore, considered a crucial step in cross-cultural research, as instruments can vary in their measurement qualities and validity across cultures. Configural invariance may even hold while measurement is non-invariant across groups (Byrne, 2003). Byrne (2003) points to bias as one of the primary concerns in crosscultural research.…”

“…Configural invariance may even hold while measurement is non-invariant across groups (Byrne, 2003). Byrne (2003) points to bias as one of the primary concerns in crosscultural research. In particular, construct-, instrument-, and item-derived bias are not uncommon concerns in cross cultural research (Byrne, 2003) and these biases can result in measurement non-invariance.…”

“…Byrne (2003) points to bias as one of the primary concerns in crosscultural research. In particular, construct-, instrument-, and item-derived bias are not uncommon concerns in cross cultural research (Byrne, 2003) and these biases can result in measurement non-invariance. Likewise, longitudinal research across age has shown levels of non-invariance (e.g.…”