title: Comprehensive Longitudinal Study Challenges the Existence of Neonatal Imitation in Humans.
abstract: Human children copy others' actions with high fidelity, supporting early cultural learning and assisting in the development and maintenance of behavioral traditions [1]. Imitation has long been assumed to occur from birth [2-4], with influential theories (e.g., [5-7]) placing an innate imitation module at the foundation of social cognition (potentially underpinned by a mirror neuron system [8, 9]). Yet, the very phenomenon of neonatal imitation has remained controversial. Empirical support is mixed and interpretations are varied [10-16], potentially because previous investigations have relied heavily on cross-sectional designs with relatively small samples and with limited controls [17, 18]. Here, we report surprising results from the most comprehensive longitudinal study of neonatal imitation to date. We presented infants (n = 106) with nine social and two non-social models and scored their responses at 1, 3, 6, and 9 weeks of age. Longitudinal analyses indicated that the infants did not imitate any of the models, as they were just as likely to produce the gestures in response to control models as they were to matching models. Previous positive findings were replicated in limited cross-sections of the data, but the overall analyses confirmed these findings to be mere artifacts of restricted comparison conditions. Our results undermine the idea of an innate imitation module and suggest that earlier studies reporting neonatal imitation were methodologically limited.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK; Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Janine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oostenbroek
authors.affiliation: Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suddendorf
authors.affiliation: Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia; Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.affiliation: Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Redshaw
authors.affiliation: Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Siobhan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kennedy-Costantini
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK.
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Sally
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia. Electronic address: vps@psy.uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Slaughter
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D005868:Gestures; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007858:Learning; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012919:Social Behavior