Experiential effects on mirror systems and social learning: implications for social intelligence.
Investigations of biases and experiential effects on social learning, social information use, and mirror systems can usefully inform one another. Unconstrained learning is predicted to shape mirror systems when the optimal response to an observed act varies, but constraints may emerge when immediate error-free responses are required and evolutionary or developmental history reliably predicts the optimal response. Given the power of associative learning, such constraints may be rare.
Department of Biology, McGill University, Montréal, QC H3A 1B1, Canada. simon.reader@mcgill.ca http://biology.mcgill.ca/faculty/reader/
Simon M
SM
Reader
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D059167:Mirror Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D012938:Social Perception