Perspectives On Imitation: From Neuroscience to Social Science

by Hurley, Susan

• ISBN13: 9780262582513
• ISBN10: 0262582511
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-03-01
• Publisher: MIT PRESS

Summary

Imitation is not the low-level, cognitively undemanding behavior it is often assumed to be, but rather-along with language and the ability to understand other minds-one of a trio of related capacities that are fundamental to human mentality. In these landmark volumes, leading researchers across a range of disciplines provide a state-of-the-art view of imitation, integrating the latest findings and theories with reviews of seminal work, and revealing why imitation is a topic of such intense current scientific interest. Perspectives are drawn from neuroscience and brain imaging, animal and developmental psychology, primatology, ethology, philosophy, anthropology, media studies, economics, sociology, education, and law. These volumes provide a resource that makes this research accessible across disciplines and clarifies its importance for the social sciences and philosophy as well as for the cognitive sciences. As a further aid to cross-fertilization, each volume includes extensive interdisciplinary commentary and discussion. The first volume considers possible mechanisms of imitation, including discussion of mirror systems, ideomotor and common coding theories, and the possibility of "shared circuits" for control, imitation, and simulation, and then takes up imitation in animals, with illuminating comparisons to human imitation. The second volume focuses first on the roles of imitation in human development and in learning to understand the minds of others, and then on the broader social and cultural roles and functions of imitation, including discussions of meme theory and cultural evolution, and of the pervasive imitative tendencies of normal adults and their relevance for understanding the effects of the media on human behavior.

Table of Contents

Volume 2 Imitation, Human Development, and Culture
Contents of Volume 1	ix
Introduction: The Importance of Imitation
Susan Hurley and Nick Chater	1	(52)
I Imitation and Human Development	53	(152)
1 Imitation and Other Minds: The "Like Me" Hypothesis
Andrew N. Meltzoff	55	(24)
2 Imitation, Mind Reading, and Simulation
Alvin I. Goldman	79	(16)
3 Intentional Agents Like Myself
Robert M. Gordon	95	(12)
4 No Compelling Evidence to Dispute Piaget's Timetable of the Development of Representational Imitation in Infancy
Moshe Anisfeld	107	(26)
5 Intention Reading and Imitative Learning
Michael Tomasello and Malinda Carpenter	133	(16)
6 On Learning What Not to Do: The Emergence of Selective Imitation in Tool Use by Young Children
Paul L. Harris and Stephen Want	149	(14)
7 Imitation as Entrainment: Brain Mechanisms and Social Consequences
Marcel Kinsbourne	163	(10)
8 Commentary and Discussion on Imitation and Human Development
8.1 Grasping Action
Paul L. Harris on Meltzoff	173	(5)
8.2 Do Babies Know What They Look Like?: Doppelgangers and the Phenomenology of Infancy
Nicholas Humphrey on Meltzoff	178	(2)
8.3 Construing Selves from Others
Wolfgang Prinz on Goldman	180	(2)
8.4 Some Reflections on the Theory Theory-Simulation Theory Debate
Ruth Garrett Millikan on Goldman	182	(7)
8.5 Who Can Imitate Depends on How We Define Imitation
Thomas R. Zentall on Anisfeld	189	(2)
8.6 What Does Infant Imitation Tell Us about the Underlying Representations?
Birgit Elsner on Anisfeld	191	(3)
8.7 Joining the Intentional Dance
Guy Claxton on Tomasello and Carpenter	194	(3)
8.8 Two Elegant Experiments
George Comstock on Harris and Want	197	(2)
8.9 Against Copying: Learning When (and Whom) Not to Ape
Guy Claxton on Kinsbourne	199	(3)
8.10 Imitating Violence
Susan Brison on Kinsbourne	202	(3)
II Imitation and Culture	205	(208)
9 Why We Are Social Animals: The High Road to Imitation as Social Glue
Ap Dijksterhuis	207	(14)
10 Deceptive Mimicry in Humans
Diego Gambetta	221	(22)
11 What Effects Does the Treatment of Violence in the Mass Media Have on People's Conduct? A Controversy Reconsidered
John Eldridge	243	(14)
12 Imitation and the Effects of Observing Media Violence on Behavior
L. Rowell Huesmann	257	(10)
13 Imitation and Moral Development
Jesse J. Prinz	267	(16)
14 Imitation and Mimesis
Merlin Donald	283	(18)
15 Imitation and Rationality
Robert Sugden	301	(16)
16 Common Misunderstandings of Memes (and Genes): The Promise and the Limits of the Genetic Analogy to Cultural Transmission Processes
Francisco J. Gil-White	317	(22)
17 Goals versus Memes: Explanation in the Theory of Cultural Evolution
Mark Greenberg	339	(16)
18 Mendelian and Darwinian Views of Memes and Cultural Change
Nick Chater	355	(8)
19 Commentary and Discussion on Imitation and Culture
19.1 Not Waving but Drowning
Susan Brison on Dijksterhuis	363	(2)
19.2 The Imitation Superhighway
Harry Litman on Dijksterhuis	365	(3)
19.3 The Crimes of Proteus
Harry Litman on Gambetta	368	(3)
19.4 Media Violence and Aggression, Properly Considered
George Comstock on Eldridge	371	(9)
19.5 Applying the Science of Imitation to the Imitation of Violence
Susan Hurley on Huesmann	380	(6)
19.6 Acquiring Morality by Imitating Emotions
L. Rowell Huesmann on J. Prinz	386	(2)
19.7 Mirror Systems and Adam Smith's Theory of Sympathy
Robert Sugden	388	(3)
19.8 The Relation between Language and (Mimetic) Culture
Morten H. Christiansen on Donald	391	(5)
19.9 A Possible Confusion between Mimetic and Memetic
Susan Blackmore on Donald	396
19.10 Imitation as a Tool of Cooperation and Manipulation
Paul Seabright on Sugden and on Gambetta	398	(4)
19.11 Proving Rationality
Mark Greenberg on Sugden	402	(4)
19.12 Even Deeper Misunderstandings of Memes
Susan Blackmore on Gil-White	406	(3)
19.13 Can Memes Meet the Challenge?
Susan Blackmore on Greenberg and on Chater	409	(4)
Bibliography for Volumes 1 and 2	413	(74)
Contributors to Volumes 1 and 2	487	(4)
Index to Volume 1	491	(28)
Index to Volume 2	519