ArticleMind & language2018
The functions of imitative behaviour in humans.
Article in Mind & language, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Dynamic emotional expressions do not modulate responses to gestures.Acta psychologica · 2021Pooled it
- Implicit leadership and multidimensional imitation: a structural pathway model among Chinese university students.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Review
- Temporal Predictions in Music and Language: The Case of Autism Spectrum Disorder.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Review
- Watched or not: Overimitation in dogs under different attentional states.Learning & behavior · 2025Article
- Synchronized affect in shared experiences strengthens social connection.Communications biology · 2023Article
- Article
- Social signalling as a framework for second-person neuroscience.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2022Review
- Increasing self-other similarity modulates ethnic bias in sensorimotor resonance to others' pain.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2022Article
- Article
- The functions of imitative behaviour in humans.Mind & language · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This article focuses on the question of the function of imitation and whether current accounts of imitative function are consistent with our knowledge about imitation's origins. We first review theories of imitative origin concluding that empirical evidence suggests that imitation arises from domain-general learning mechanisms. Next, we lay out a selective account of function that allows normative functions to be ascribed to learned behaviours. We then describe and review four accounts of the function of imitation before evaluating the relationship between the claim that imitation arises out of domain-general learning mechanisms and theories of the function of imitation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.