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Cecilia "Celia" M. Heyes Professor Department of Psychology Univeristy College London |
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| S P E A K E R S E R I E S |
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Cecilia "Celia" M. Heyes Professor Department of Psychology Univeristy College London |
Imitation: General Mechanism or Innate Module?
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| Guest Lecture for Spring 2002 Graduate Seminar: Learning & Evolution |
ABSTRACT:
The Associative Sequence Learning theory of imitation is a simple, general model which suggests that the capacity to imitate novel body movements depends on domain-general mechanisms of motor learning processing atypical input, i.e. observed, rather than executed, body movements. The general mechanisms become accessible to this atypical input through experience which establishes bidirectional excitatory links between sensory and motor representations of action units. This experience consists of concurrent observation and execution of action units (e.g., during direct and mirror-mediated self-observation, and socially synchronous action), and exposure to a common stimulus (e.g., a sound) paired on some occasions with observation and on other occasions with execution (acquired equivalence training). It will be argued that comparative, developmental and neurobiological data are consistent with this model. In addition, experiments testing a novel prediction of the model will be presented. The results of these studies, in which adult humans observe performance in a serial reaction time task, suggest that imitation learning can be implicit and effector-specific.
RELATED READING 
Heyes, C.M. 2001. Causes and consequences of imitation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 5: 253-261.
(Full Text PDF)Heyes, C.M. 2001. Evolutionary psychology in the round. In: C. M. Heyes & L. Huber (Eds.) Evolution of cognition. MIT Press. Pp. 1-21. Heyes, C.M. & E.D. Ray. (in press 2001) Distinguishing intention-sensitive from outcome-sensitive imitation. Developmental Science. Heyes, C.M. & E. Ray. 2000. What is the significance of imitation in animals? Advances in the Study of Behavior 29: 215-245. Campbell, F., C.M. Heyes, & A. Goldsmith. 1999. Simultaneous stimulus and response learning by observation in the European starling using a two-object / two-action. Animal Behaviour 58: 151-158. ONLINE RESOURCES: Dr. Heyes' ESRC Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution profile Dr. Heyes' departmental page Dr. Heyes' publication list Dr. Heyes' Curriculum Vitae Dr. Heyes' Insitute of Cognitive Neuroscience page PubMed search for CM Heyes publications |
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| OTHER SPRING 2002 SPEAKERS : Stim Wilcox . Russ Fernald . Nicky Clayton |
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