Social learning in children and chimpanzees

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Social learning in children and chimpanzees
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Social learning mechanisms

• mimicking learner copies actions with no
  understanding of underlying goals
• emulation learner achieves same end result
  using his own actions
• goal emulation learner achieves intended goal
  of demonstrator using his own actions
• imitative learning learner copies the
  demonstrators actions in order to achieve the
  same goal
• (Tomasello, 1990 Whiten Ham, 1992)

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Social learning mechanisms

• mimicking learner copies actions with no
  understanding of underlying goals
• emulation learner achieves same end result
  using his own actions
• goal emulation learner achieves intended goal
  of demonstrator using his own actions
• imitative learning learner copies the
  demonstrators actions in order to achieve the
  same goal
• (Tomasello, 1990 Whiten Ham, 1992)

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(No Transcript)
5
Call Carpenter (2002)
Three independent sources of information
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Call Carpenter (2002)
Three independent sources of information
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ACTIONS
GOALS
Goal emulation
Mimicry
Imitative learning
Emulation
Stimulus enhancement
RESULTS
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Imitation in infants

• Development
• The question of what to imitate
• Factors influencing infant imitation

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Neonatal imitation
from Meltzoff Moore (1977)

• Infants as young as 42 minutes old copy several
  facial actions (e.g., Meltzoff Moore, 1977).

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Neonatal imitation

• These infants cannot see (and have never seen)
  their own face, and do not have much experience
  with others faces, but they match others
  actions.
• Meltzoff and Moore claim that infants do this
  using an innate active intermodal mapping (AIM)
  system (i.e., they match their own felt activity
  to the seen behavior of the other). They further
  claim that this system explains the emergence of
  understanding of others minds.

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from Meltzoff (2005)
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Neonatal imitation
- ?

• But
• only about 50 of infants do it
• it is difficult to elicit, and the most
  convincing evidence is for a single action,
  tongue protrusion (Anisfeld, 1996, 2005) ? could
  be due to arousal
• similar responses are seen to nonsocial stimuli,
  e.g., lights or music ? could be exploratory
  response (Jones, 1996, 2006)
• and

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from Myowa-Yamakoshi, Tomonaga, Tanaka,
Matsuzawa (2004)

• Chimpanzees do it too, and they may not have the
  same understanding of others minds.

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Overview of development and patterns of imitation

• Some reports of imitation in 6- and 9-month-old
  infants more beginning at 12 months
• General findings
• typically-developing children usually copy the
  way others do things (their actions along with
  their results)
• apes usually reproduce the result using their own
  actions
• children with autism may copy only some aspects
  of actions
• But this is not the entire story

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Imitation in infants

• Development
• The question of what to imitate
• Factors influencing infant imitation

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Bushnell (1998, submitted)
Demonstration
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Bushnell (1998, submitted)
Demonstration

• like the problem of reference in language
  acquisition (another type of imitation)
• When watching a demonstration, how do you know
  which of the many possible aspects of it should
  be copied?

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Bushnell (1998, submitted)
Demonstration
X
X
X

• like the problem of reference in language
  acquisition (another type of imitation)
• When watching a demonstration, how do you know
  which of the many possible aspects of it should
  be copied?

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Imitation in infants

• Development
• The question of what to imitate
• Factors influencing infant imitation

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• Three main (social-cognitive) factors determine
  which aspects of a demonstration infants will
  choose to copy
• infants understanding of others goals and
  intentions
• infants understanding of others communicative
  intentions
• infants own social versus instrumental goals

Carpenter (2006)
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• Three main (social-cognitive) factors determine
  which aspects of a demonstration infants will
  choose to copy
• infants understanding of others goals and
  intentions
• infants understanding of others communicative
  intentions
• infants own social versus instrumental goals

(e.g., Tomasello, Kruger, Ratner, 1993)
Carpenter (2006)
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Meltzoff (1995)

• 18-month-olds watched as E either successfully
  achieved some result or else tried but failed to
  achieve the result.
• Infants in both of those conditions completed
  the result.
• 15-month-olds but not 12-month-olds show the
  same pattern of results. (Bellagamba Tomasello,
  1999 Johnson, Booth, OHearn, 2001) But
  maybe 12-month-olds too (Nielsen Kennedy,
  2006)

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• Some of the same studies with three 2- to
  4-year-old, nursery-reared chimpanzees (Tomasello
  Carpenter, 2005)

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Tomasello Carpenter (2005)based on Meltzoff
(1995)

• Chimpanzees also completed the result in the
  failed attempt condition.
• Two similar studies with mother-reared
  chimpanzees found similar results but had
  problems with too low or too high levels of
  responding (Call, Carpenter, Tomasello, 2005
  Myowa-Yamakoshi Matsuzawa, 2000).

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Call, Carpenter, Tomasello (2005)
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Carpenter, Akhtar, Tomasello (1998)

• 14- to 18-month-olds watched as E performed two
  actions, one accidentally (whoops!) and one
  intentionally (there!).
• Infants copied more intentional than accidental
  actions.

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Tomasello Carpenter (2005)based on Carpenter,
Akhtar, Tomasello (1998)

• These chimpanzees also copied more intentional
  than accidental actions.
• (no published studies of this in children with
  autism yet)

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Some advantages to using goals over actions and
results

• can filter out accidental, irrelevant, or
  unsuccessful actions ? more efficient and
  conventional performance
• can achieve same end even if there are
  differences in body size, situation, constraints
  (Nehaniv Dautenhahn, 2001).
• sometimes the same actions have different goals
  (e.g., Behne et al., submitted) and different
  actions have the same goal (e.g., Meltzoff,
  1995).
• avoid copying superfluous or insufficient
  elements of the demonstration more flexible
  imitation

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• One-year-old infants and (at least some)
  chimpanzees can understand others goals and use
  them to work out what others are doing, and thus
  what they themselves should do.
• But in order to imitate flexibly, sometimes
  copying actions like human infants do, one needs
  in addition to be able to infer the
  demonstrators intention.

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Goals versus intentions

• Understanding others goals actor has a goal
  and behaves with persistence until reality
  matches the goal. end
• Understanding others intentions actor
  considers action plans and chooses which of them
  to enact (and these plans may be more or less
  rational depending on their fit with perceived
  reality). means (end)
• Understanding others intentions might be
  particularly important in imitation if I know
  you chose that means for a reason, Im more
  likely to copy it myself.

Tomasello, Carpenter, Call, Behne, Moll (2005)
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GOAL
Attention
state of world
failure
success
accident
constraints
Action
Result
Reality
Tomasello, Carpenter, Call, Behne, Moll (2005)
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GOAL
Attention
Decision-making
relevant skills, knowledge
relevant reality
INTENTION
state of world
failure
success
accident
constraints
Action
Result
Reality
Tomasello, Carpenter, Call, Behne, Moll (2005)
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Three independent sources of information
GOAL/ INTENTION
RESULT
ACTION
goal demonstrators aim intention plan of
action action demonstrators body
movements result changes in the environment
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Gergely, Bekkering, Király (2002)

• Hands-occupied constraint ? had to use unusual
  means.
• Hands-free no constraint ? chose to use
  unusual means.

• 14-month-olds copied the unusual action more
  when E chose to use it than when she had to use
  it.

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Schwier, van Maanen, Carpenter, Tomasello (in
press)

• Door Closed constraint ? had
  to use unusual means (chimney).
• Door Open no constraint
• ? chose to use unusual means.
• (For infants, the door was always open.)

• 12-month-olds copied the unusual action more
  when E chose to use it than when she had to use
  it.

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Tomasello Carpenter (2005)

• Chimpanzees watched as E pulled in a grape using
  a tool, either
• with a barrier (like hands occupied E had to use
  tool) or
• without a barrier (like hands free E chose to
  use tool) present.

• Chimpanzees used the tool equally often in both
  conditions.

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Summary

• Infants do more than copy actions. They use
  others goals to decide which actions to copy.
• They can see
• two different actions as having the same goal
  (Meltzoff, 1995)
• the same actions as having different goals or
  intentions (Carpenter et al., 1998 Gergely et
  al., 2002)
• Sometimes the action is part of the
  goal/intention. When it is, children copy it.
• Chimpanzees may understand and use goals but not
  intentions. This might be one reason why they do
  not usually copy others actions.

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• Three main (social-cognitive) factors determine
  which aspects of a demonstration infants will
  choose to copy
• infants understanding of others goals and
  intentions
• infants understanding of others communicative
  intentions
• infants own social versus instrumental goals

(Bushnell, 1998 Gergely Csibra, in press)
Carpenter (2006)
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ostensive-communicative cues (eye contact,
attention getters)
Watch!
versus
? infants copy unusual action in hands-free
? infants rarely copy unusual action (just copy
result)

• Infants use communicative cues to help decide
  what to copy.

Király, Csibra, Gergely (in prep.) Nielsen (in
press)
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• No studies of apes understanding of
  communicative intentions within imitation tasks,
  but much evidence outside of imitation tasks that
  they have difficulties understanding others
  communicative intentions. (more on this tomorrow)

41
Bushnell (1998, submitted)
Demonstration

• When watching a demonstration, how do you know
  which of the many possible aspects of it should
  be copied?

42
Bushnell (1998, submitted)
Watch!
Demonstration
X
Accident

• When watching a demonstration, how do you know
  which of the many possible aspects of it should
  be copied?

43
Bushnell (1998, submitted)
Watch!
Demonstration
X
Accident
(index finger? gently or harshly?)

• When watching a demonstration, how do you know
  which of the many possible aspects of it should
  be copied?

44

• Three main (social-cognitive) factors determine
  which aspects of a demonstration infants will
  choose to copy
• infants understanding of others goals and
  intentions
• infants understanding of others communicative
  intentions
• infants own social versus instrumental goals

(Užgiris, 1981)
Carpenter (2006)
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• Uzgiris (1981) identified two functions of
  imitation in infancy
• an instrumental function in which the imitator
  learns something about the object or action in
  the demonstration, and
• a social function in which the imitator and the
  demonstrator are communicating mutuality and
  shared understanding with each other.
• another social function to be more like you

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Tomasello, Petschauer, Carpenter (in
preparation)

• 6-, 9-, and 12-month-olds watched as E performed
  actions with a particular style (Hobson Lee,
  1999)
• e.g., illuminated light panel with fist instead
  of flat hand
• We coded whether infants reproduced the same end
  result, and whether they did so using the same
  unnecessary action style.
• Compared to Manipulation Control condition.

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Copying of results (preliminary results)

age F(2,32) 4.31, p.022 condition F(1,16)
12.90, p.002 age x condition F(2,32) 4.44,
p.02
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Copying of style(preliminary results)
age F(2,32) 6.73, p.004 condition F(1,16)
6.80, p.019 age x condition F(2,32) .71,
p.50

• Infants copied Es style more after a
  demonstration than in a control condition, and
  this is a pattern that can be seen already at age
  6 months.

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• From very early, infants are motivated to align
  themselves with others and copy exactly what they
  do.
• They do this even when it results in them
  performing worse on the task than they otherwise
  would (e.g., Nagell, Olguin, Tomasello, 1993).
• There may be developmental changes in the
  importance of the social function
• Children gt adults
• Particular peaks around 18 months (with adults),
  adolescence (with peers)??

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Tomasello Carpenter (2005)based on Tomasello,
Petschauer, Carpenter (in prep.)

• E performed actions with a particular style
  (Hobson Lee, 1999)
• e.g., illuminated light panel with fist instead
  of flat hand
• We coded whether Ss reproduced the same end
  result, and whether they did so using the same
  unnecessary action style.

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Copying of results
p.07
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Copying of style

• Chimpanzees did not produce Es style more when
  they saw it than when they did not.

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Children with autism
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• Three main (social-cognitive) factors determine
  which aspects of a demonstration infants will
  choose to copy
• infants understanding of others goals and
  intentions
• infants understanding of others communicative
  intentions
• infants own social versus instrumental goals

Carpenter (2006)
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Goals and intentions

• Young children with autism may have an
  understanding of others goals (failed attempts)
• They perform the action E meant to do, not what
  E actually did (Carpenter, Pennington, Rogers,
  2001, using Meltzoffs, 1995, procedure).
• But they might not understand others intentions
  as rational choices of action plans
• They copy Es unusual action equally often
  whether she had to use it or freely chose to use
  it (Somogyi et al., 2005, using Gergely et al.s,
  2002, procedure).

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Communicative intentions

• People with autism (even adults) have difficulty
  with many aspects of communicative intentions,
  both in their own and others communication (see
  Sabbagh, 1999, for a review).
• Children with autism
• are less responsive to speech and other social
  stimuli than are children without autism (Dawson
  et al., 1998 Klin, 1991).
• pay less attention to others eyes, and have
  more difficulty detecting eye contact (Klin et
  al., 2002 Senju et al., 2003).
• have trouble understanding the language of the
  eyes (Baron-Cohen et al., 1995, 1997).
• If children with autism do not realize the
  significance of demonstrators ostensive-communica
  tive signals, they miss out on an important
  channel of information.
• Carpenter (2006)

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Social function of imitation

• Although children with autism sometimes copy the
  means others use to achieve an end, they do not
  copy the particular action style others use
  (Hobson Lee, 1999 Hobson Meyer, 2006).
• Carpenter (2006)

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Summary

• It is the social/sharing/collaborative aspects
  that are missing in apes and children with autism.