Investigating the mechanisms of cultural acquisition: How pervasive is overimitation in adults?

Flynn, E.; Smith, K.

Abstract

High-fidelity copying is critical to the acquisition of culture. However, young children’s high-fidelity imitation can result in overimitation, the copying of instrumentally irrelevant actions. We present a series of studies investigating whether adults too overimitate. Experiment 1 found that adults do overimitate, even when evaluation pressures were reduced (Experiment 2) and when participants were faced with a time pressure involving a monetary reward (Experiment 3). Only when participants were presented with a demonstration by someone they believed to be a fellow participant (Experiment 4) did less than half of them overimitate. Thus, overimitation appears to be a robust, adaptive process allowing the acquisition of new information in unfamiliar settings.

Citation

Flynn, E., & Smith, K. (2012). Investigating the mechanisms of cultural acquisition: How pervasive is overimitation in adults?. Social Psychology, 43(4), 185-195. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000119

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2012
• Deposit Date: Feb 27, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 24, 2015
• Journal: Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie
• Print ISSN: 1864-9335
• Electronic ISSN: 2151-2590
• Publisher: Hogrefe
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 43
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 185-195
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000119
• Keywords: Social learning, Overimitation, Imitation, Cultural evolution, Observational learning.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1503539