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

Flynn, E.; Smith, K.

doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000119

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

Flynn, E.; Smith, K.

Authors

E. Flynn

K. Smith

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
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.

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Copyright Statement
© 2012 Hogrefe Publishing. Social Psychology 2012; 43(4): 185-195. This article does not exactly replicate the final version published in the journal "Social Psychology". It is not a copy of the original published article and is not suitable for citation.