The association between imitation recognition and socio-communicative competencies in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Pope, Sarah M.; Russell, Jamie L.; Hopkins, William D.

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00188

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…Another avenue of research is to identify covariances between opaque imitation and specialized bodily representational mechanisms as measured by mirror self-recognition (MSR) and imitation recognition (IR) [ 175 , 176 , 177 ]. Studying MSR and IR might be particularly useful because opaque imitation tasks are likely to tax bodily representations among other specialized representational systems necessary to resolve the correspondence problem [ 60 ].…”

Section: Future Directionsmentioning

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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Section: Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Subiaul

2016

Behavioral Sciences

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“…While the responses produced by the monkeys suggest that they implicitly discriminate being imitated from other types of interactions, toddlers and great apes show explicit imitation recognition, as they respond with so-called testing behaviours (e.g. Nielsen et al 2005 ; Haun and Call 2008 ; Pope et al 2015 ). Often these take the form of ‘behavioural repetitions’, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In line with this interpretation, imitation recognition appears to be related to general social communicative skills. For example, chimpanzees that are more responsive to being imitated, also score higher on gesture production and comprehension, joint attention and gaze following (Pope et al 2015 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spontaneous cross-species imitation in interactions between chimpanzees and zoo visitors

2017

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Imitation is a cornerstone of human development, serving both a cognitive function (e.g. in the acquisition and transmission of skills and knowledge) and a social–communicative function, whereby the imitation of familiar actions serves to maintain social interaction and promote prosociality. In nonhuman primates, this latter function is poorly understood, or even claimed to be absent. In this observational study, we documented interactions between chimpanzees and zoo visitors and found that the two species imitated each other at a similar rate, corresponding to almost 10% of all produced actions. Imitation appeared to accomplish a social–communicative function, as cross-species interactions that contained imitative actions lasted significantly longer than interactions without imitation. In both species, physical proximity promoted cross-species imitation. Overall, imitative precision was higher among visitors than among chimpanzees, but this difference vanished in proximity contexts, i.e. in the indoor environment. Four of five chimpanzees produced imitations; three of them exhibited comparable imitation rates, despite large individual differences in level of cross-species interactivity. We also found that chimpanzees evidenced imitation recognition, yet only when visitors imitated their actions (as opposed to postures). Imitation recognition was expressed by returned imitation in 36% of the cases, and all four imitating chimpanzees engaged in so-called imitative games. Previously regarded as unique to early human socialization, such games serve to maintain social engagement. The results presented here indicate that nonhuman apes exhibit spontaneous imitation that can accomplish a communicative function. The study raises a number of novel questions for imitation research and highlights the imitation of familiar behaviours as a relevant—yet thus far understudied—research topic.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10329-017-0624-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…Indeed, we have 7 previously found that chimpanzees who perform better on an imitation recognition task 8 also perform significantly better on measures of social cognition and socio-9 communicative competencies (Pope et al, 2015). Thus, the current study indicates that a 10 left-dominant imitation system might have pre-dated the Pan-Homo divergence; thereby 11 providing indirect support for theories suggesting that language might have been built 12 upon or in conjunction with the emergence of increasingly sophisticated imitation 13 recognition and learning skills.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in Frontoparietotemporal Connectivity following Do-As-I-Do Imitation Training in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Pope

Taglialatela

Skiba

et al. 2018

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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Changes in fronto-parieto-temporal connectivity following Do-As-I- Human imitation is supported by an underlying 'mirror system' principally 3 composed of inferior frontal (IF), inferior parietal (IP), and superior temporal (ST) 4 cortical regions. Across primate species, differences in fronto-parieto-temporal 5 connectivity have been hypothesized to explain phylogenetic variation in imitative 6 abilities. However, if and to what extent these regions are involved in imitation in non-7 human primates is unknown. We hypothesized that 'Do As I Do' (DAID) imitation 8 training would enhance white matter integrity within and between fronto-parieto-9 temporal regions. To this end, four captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) were trained 10 to reproduce 23 demonstrated actions, while four age/sex-matched controls were trained 11 to produce basic husbandry behaviors in response to manual cues. Diffusion tensor 12 images were acquired before and after 600 minutes of training over an average of 112 13 days. Bilateral and asymmetrical changes in fronto-parieto-temporal white matter 14 integrity were compared between DAID trained subjects and controls. We found that 15 imitation trained subjects exhibited leftward shifts in both mean fractional anisotropy and 16 tract strength asymmetry measures in brain regions within the mirror system. This is the 17 first report of training-induced changes in white matter integrity in chimpanzees and 18suggests that fronto-parieto-temporal connectivity, particularly in the left hemisphere, 19 may have facilitated the emergence of increasingly complex imitation learning abilities.

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The association between imitation recognition and socio-communicative competencies in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Cited by 9 publications

References 80 publications

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

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

Spontaneous cross-species imitation in interactions between chimpanzees and zoo visitors

Changes in Frontoparietotemporal Connectivity following Do-As-I-Do Imitation Training in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

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