ESRC Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution
Abstract
Automatic imitation has been used as a behavioural index of the functioning of the human mirror system (e.g. Brass, Bekkering, Wohlschlager, & Prinz, 2000; Heyes, Bird, Johnson, & Haggard, 2005; Kilner, Paulignan, & Blakemore, 2003). However, several papers have criticised the assumption that automatic imitation is mediated by the mirror system on the grounds that automatic imitation has been confounded with simple spatial compatibility (Aicken, Wilson, Williams, & Mon-Williams, 2007; Bertenthal, Longo, and Kosobud, 2006; Jansson, Wilson, Williams, & Mon-Williams, 2007). Two experiments are reported in which, in contrast with previous studies, automatic imitation was measured on both spatially compatible and spatially incompatible trials, and automatic imitation was shown to be present regardless of spatial compatibility. Additional features of the two experiments allowed measurement of the time courses of the automatic imitation and spatial compatibility effects both within and across trials. It was found that automatic imitation effects follow a different time course from spatial compatibility effects, providing further evidence for their independence and supporting the use of automatic imitation as a behavioural marker of mirror system functioning
