Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Learning by imitation: a hierarchical approach.

R W Byrne1, A E Russon

  • 1Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology, University of St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. rwb@st-andrews.ac.uk

The Behavioral and Brain Sciences
|March 31, 1999
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Radiotherapy in adult low-grade glioma: nationwide trends in treatment and outcomes.

Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico·2020
Same author

Social relationships of mountain baboons: Leadership and affiliation in a non-female-bonded monkey.

American journal of primatology·2020
Same author

Social relationships of mountain baboons: Leadership and affiliation in a non-female-bonded monkey.

American journal of primatology·2020
Same author

Primate cognition: Comparing problems and skills.

American journal of primatology·2020
Same author

Great ape gestures: intentional communication with a rich set of innate signals.

Animal cognition·2017
Same author

Wild chimpanzees' use of single and combined vocal and gestural signals.

Behavioral ecology and sociobiology·2017
Same journal

Shared intentionality and attachment theories in WILD and WEIRD contexts.

The Behavioral and brain sciences·2026
Same journal

Constructing an architecture for a decolonized developmental science.

The Behavioral and brain sciences·2026
Same journal

Go WILD, but mind the gap.

The Behavioral and brain sciences·2026
Same journal

WILDing the study of developmental trajectories in navigation and wayfinding: Progress and challenges.

The Behavioral and brain sciences·2026
Same journal

WILD kids, cutting-edge research. Enhancing diversity and reflexivity in psychology.

The Behavioral and brain sciences·2026
Same journal

Ethnographic methods can help psychology overcome its WEIRD problems.

The Behavioral and brain sciences·2026
See all related articles

Social learning in great apes is explained by priming, a cognitive process. Program-level imitation, a complex skill, is key to learning and observed in gorillas and orangutans.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Ethology
  • Primatology

Background:

  • Social learning is crucial for skill acquisition.
  • Traditional views of imitation as a special faculty have yielded inconclusive results.
  • Alternative learning mechanisms have been proposed, often subsumed under priming.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose a unified framework for social learning mechanisms, focusing on priming.
  • To differentiate between action-level and program-level imitation in great apes.
  • To re-evaluate great ape imitation capabilities, particularly at the program level.

Main Methods:

  • Conceptual analysis drawing from cognitive psychology.
  • Observation of wild mountain gorillas' food preparation techniques.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Analysis of imitative behavior in orangutans during rehabilitation.

    • Main Results:

    • Most proposed social learning mechanisms can be explained by priming.
    • Great ape behavior is organized hierarchically, allowing for action-level and program-level imitation.
    • Program-level imitation is crucial for complex skill learning and evident in gorillas and orangutans, but may be limited by hierarchical depth capacity in apes compared to humans.

    Conclusions:

    • Imitation in great apes, particularly at the program level, is a constructive mechanism for efficient complex skill learning.
    • Action-level imitation may serve primarily social functions.
    • Re-interpretation of behaviors like chimpanzee emulation suggests program-level imitation is widespread in great apes.