A Comparative-Developmental Approach to Understanding Imitation

Abstract

Imitation is so often an untractable phenomenon for comparative psychologists that some have declared the task of defining it hopeless. Yet commonalities in examples of imitation suggest that imitation is a coherent concept. To evaluate its meaning and significance, I examine the conception of imitation in accounts by four authors who have systematically investigated imitation: James Mark Baldwin, Conwy Lloyd Morgan, Paul Guillaume, and Jean Piaget. Each of these authors elucidates different stages or levels in the development of imitation which indicate significantly different psychological capacities in the production of imitation. The similarities between these developmental frameworks are remarkable (though differences are apparent), but the conceptions of imitation provided by these authors show some distinct differences. To offer a coherent account of imitation, I analyze it conceptually and offer necessary and sufficient criteria for its occurrence. I claim that imitation occurs when something C (the copy) is produced by an organism and/or machine, where: C is similar to something else M (the model); registration of M is necessary for the production of C; and C is designed to be similar to M. This definition offers formal criteria for imitation per se, but does not differentiate qualitatively different types of imitation. Thus, using and developing the accounts of Baldwin, Morgan, Guillaume, and Piaget, I depict five nested levels of imitation, such that imitation at each level is produced by a program which incorporates control over programs in preceding levels. I provide examples of imitation by humans and non-humans at each of these levels. These five levels of imitation are distinguished by the processes which bring about the imitation: first-level imitations are based on evolution, selection, and morphogenesis; second-level, on perception and action; third-level, on learning; fourth-level, on self-awareness; and fifth-level, on planning and the awareness of another’s awareness. Imitation, then, is a conceptually coherent phenomenon with various manifestations, which result from processes at different but hierarchically related levels.