The Imitative Mind
Development, Evolution and Brain Bases
Published on 18. April 2002
Book
Hardback
364 pages
978-0-521-80685-5 (ISBN)
Description
Imitation guides the behaviour of a range of species. Scientific advances in the study of imitation at multiple levels from neurons to behaviour have far-reaching implications for cognitive science, neuroscience, and evolutionary and developmental psychology. This volume, first published in 2002, provides a summary of the research on imitation in both Europe and America, including work on infants, adults, and nonhuman primates, with speculations about robotics. A special feature of the book is that it provides a concrete instance of the links between developmental psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science. It showcases how an interdisciplinary approach to imitation can illuminate long-standing problems in the brain sciences, including consciousness, self, perception-action coding, theory of mind, and intersubjectivity. The book addresses what it means to be human and how we get that way.
Reviews / Votes
Review of the hardback: 'Most of the book's merit is in the chapters themselves, most of which are skillfully written such that their relevance goes beyond the limits of the discipline at hand and illuminates issues relevant to neighboring disciplines as well. The two editors are leading figures in the fields of developmental and experimental psychology, and their respective research contributions blend well conceptually.' Nature Neuroscience Review of the hardback: 'Despite the variety of disciplines and viewpoints represented, the editors, Meltzoff and Prinz, were able to foster a strong sense of coherency by encouraging the authors to make strategic cross-references to each other's papers. Without exception the essays are rich in empirical data. Experiments are viewed, and in a few cases previously unpublished experiments are discussed.' Infant and Child DevelopmentMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
42 b/w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
741 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-80685-5 (9780521806855)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
09/2011
Cambridge University Press
€60.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
E-Book
12/2004
1st Edition
Cambridge University Press
€42.99
Available for download
Persons
Andrew N. Meltzoff studied psychology at Harvard and Oxford (D. Phil. 1976). He has been a full professor at the University of Washington since 1988. In 2000 he was named Director of the UW Center for Mind, Brain and Learning. Meltzoff is the recipient of a National Institute of Health Merit Award for outstanding research. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and a foreign member of the Norwegian National Academy of Science and Letters. He is the co-author of Words, Thoughts and Theories (1997) and The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us about the Mind (1999). Wolfgang Prinz studied Psychology, Philosophy and Zoology at the University of Muenster, Germany. He took his Ph.D. in 1970 at the Dept. of Psychology at the University of Bielefeld (1975-1990) and at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (1990-1998). Since 1990 he is the Director at the Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research, Munich. He has published empirical and theoretical work on perception, action, consciousness and attention as well as on the history of psychology.
Content
Part I. Introduction and Overview: 1. An interdisciplinary introduction to the imitative mind and brain Wolfgang Prinz and Andrew N. Meltzoff; Part II. Developmental and Evolutionary Approaches to Imitation: 2. Building blocks for a developmental theory of imitation Andrew N. Meltzoff; 3. Imitation and imitation recognition: functional use in preverbal infants and nonverbal children with autism Jacqueline Nadel; 4. Self-awareness, other-awareness, and secondary representation Jens B. Asendorpf; 5. Notes on individual differences and the assumed elusiveness of neonatal imitation Mikael Heimann; 6. Ego function of early imitation Philippe Rochat; 7. The imitator's representation of the imitated: ape and child A. Whiten; 8. Seeing actions as hierarchically organised structures: great ape manual skills Richard W. Byrne; Part III. Cognitive Approaches to Imitation, Body Scheme, and Perception-action Coding: 9. Experimental approaches to imitation Wolfgang Prinz; 10. Imitation: common mechanisms in the observation and execution of finger and mouth movements Harold Bekkering; 11. Goal-directed imitation Merideth Gattis, Harold Bekkering and Andreas Wolschlaeger; 12. Visuomotor couplings in object-orientated and imitative actions Stefan Vogt; 13. On bodies and events Barbara Tversky, Julie Bauer Morrison and Jeff Zacks; 14. What is the body schema? Catherine L. Reed; Part IV. Neuroscience Underpinnings of Imitation and Apraxia: 15. From mirror neurons to imitation: facts and speculations Giacomo Rizzolatti, Luciano Fadiga, Leonardo Fogassi and Vittorio Gallese; 16. Cell populations in the banks of the superior temporal sulcus of the macaque and imitation T. Jellema, C. I. Baker, M. W. Oram and D. I. Perrett; 17. Is there such a thing as a functional equivalence between imagined, observed, and executed action? Jean Decety; 18. The role of imitation in body ownership and mental growth Marcel Kinsbourne; 19. Imitation, apraxia, and hemisphere dominance Georg Goldenberg and Joachim Hermsdoerfer.