Rethinking 'rational imitation' in 14-month-old infants: a perceptual distraction approach

In their widely noticed study, Gergely, Bekkering, and Király (2002) showed that 14-month-old infants imitated an unusual action only if the model freely chose to perform this action and not if the choice of the action could be ascribed to external constraints. They attributed this kind of selective imitation to the infants' capacity of understanding the principle of rational action. In the current paper, we present evidence that a simpler approach of perceptual distraction may be more appropriate to explain their results. When we manipulated the saliency of context stimuli in the two original conditions, the results were exactly opposite to what rational imitation predicts. Based on these findings, we reject the claim that the notion of rational action plays a key role in selective imitation in 14-month-olds.

Introduction to Special Issue: The Plus Ultra of Empirical Research

Recent advances in cognitive science and neuroscience (CSN) have allowed scientists to begin to address questions that were heretofore considered the province of the humanities. Growing out of a 2007 conference at Bucknell University, this volume explores recent research in many different areas that combines the methods and perspectives of both the humanities and CSN. This introduction argues that the barriers to such work (such as the opposition between objective scientific research and subjective humanistic research) are purely of our own making and in no way absolute; it further asserts that the articles herein demonstrate that the potential benefits of interdisciplinary study far outweigh the risks. There is no fixed method for interdisciplinarity. Its success depends on respect for the particulars of each research question and the imagination to see what combinations of different disciplines might work best.