'Over-imitation': A review and appraisal of a decade of research

Author(s)
Stefanie Höhl, Stefanie Keupp, Hanna Schleihauf, Nicola McGuigan, David Buttelmann, Andrew Whiten
Abstract

After seeing an action sequence children and adults tend to copy causally relevant and, more strikingly, even perceivably unnecessary actions in relation to the given goal. This phenomenon, termed "over-imitation", has inspired much empirical research in the past decade as well as lively theoretical debate on its cognitive underpinnings and putative role in the transmission of cultural knowledge. Here, we offer a comprehensive review of the existing literature to date, accompanied by a table including concise information on 54 published studies testing over-imitation in different species, age groups and cultures. We highlight methodological issues related to task and context that influence over-imitation rates and that should be carefully considered in study designs. We discuss the cognitive and motivational processes underlying and contributing to over imitation, including normative action parsing, causal reasoning, motives of affiliation and social learning as well as their complex interplay. We conclude that despite the apparent irrationality of over-imitation behavior, recent studies have shown that its performance depends on the specific task, modeled actions and context variables, suggesting that over-imitation should be conceptualized as a contextually flexible and, in fact, a normally highly functional phenomenon.

Organisation(s)
Department of Clinical and Health Psychology
External organisation(s)
University of the West of Scotland, Cognitive Ethology Laboratory, German Primate Center, Universität Ulm, Scientific Software Center, Max-Planck-Institut für Kognitions- und Neurowissenschaften, Universität Bern, University of St. Andrews
Journal
Developmental Review
Volume
51
Pages
90-108
No. of pages
19
ISSN
0273-2297
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2018.12.002
Publication date
03-2019
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
501005 Developmental psychology
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Psychiatry and Mental health, Education, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/overimitation-a-review-and-appraisal-of-a-decade-of-research(ab1d5233-147a-42bc-8105-02db4e26437c).html