Heyes, C.; Press, C.; (2008) Stimulus-driven selection of routes to imitation. (ELSE Working Papers 299). ESRC Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution: London, UK.

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Abstract

Several models have proposed that an action can be imitated via one of two routes: a direct visuospatial route, which can in principle mediate imitation of both meaningful and meaningless actions, and an indirect semantic route, which can be used only for meaningful actions. The present study investigated whether selection between the direct and indirect routes is strategic or stimulus-driven. It has previously been shown, using accuracy measures, that imitation of meaningful actions is superior to imitation of meaningless actions when the two action types are presented in separate blocks, and that the advantage of meaningful over meaningless items is smaller or absent when they are presented in mixed blocks. We first replicated this finding using an automated, reaction time (RT) procedure. We then examined latency to imitate meaningful and meaningless actions in the mixed condition as a function of the action type presented in the previous trial, and in relation to the number of previous test trials. These analyses showed that 1) for both action types, performance was worse immediately after meaningless than after meaningful trials, and 2) even at the beginning of the mixed condition, responding to meaningful actions was no faster than responding to meaningless items. These results suggest that the properties of the action stimulus play a substantial role in determining whether imitation is mediated by the direct or the indirect route, and that effects of block composition on imitation need not be generated through strategic switching between routes.

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