Evaluation of a theory of imitation

A series of experiments was conducted in order to evaluate a theory proposed by Heyes and Saggerson (2000) of how one animal is able to imitate the action of another animal. A fundamental assumption of the theory is that animal's are able to discriminate between the natural movements of other animals on the basis of dynamic cues created by the transition from one posture to another. The results from Experiment 1 to 3 revealed for the first time that pigeons and budgerigars are indeed sensitive to the dynamic cues created by different movements. These cues were shown to be effective with inverted images (Experiment 4), but not degraded, point-light images (Experiment 5). A further assumption of the theory is that imitation will be evident whenever one animal has the opportunity to observe the actions of another animal. This assumption gained support from the results of Experiment 7, but not Experiment 6. Overall the results lend strong support to the theory