Abstract

ZAMORA, Abel Javier; LOPEZ, Martha E  and  CABRERA, Rosalva. Imitation in animal groups? Evaluation in pigeons of a novel response to obtain food. Suma Psicol. [online]. 2011, vol.18, n.1, pp.67-81. ISSN 0121-4381.

This article presents a brief portrait on conceptual traits and contemporary experimental evidence about learning by imitation processes in animals. Based on this information two experiments were designed to evaluate learning by imitation of a novel response to obtain food in groups of pigeons, varying the number of subjects in each group. In experiment 1 the number of observers per group on acquisition by imitation of response was varied, whereas in experiment 2 the number of trained demonstrators was varied. The data obtained in both experiments show that the observers performance was sensitive to the response-reinforcer relation. Only groups exposed to trained demonstrators perform the response, and increases in the number of subjects in the experimental situation produced minor acquisition of response. We discuss how the processes evaluated in these studies can be conceived as imitation and present a contrast of imitation processes in animal and human subjects.

Keywords : imitation; animals; humans; response; reinforcer.

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