Cook, R.;
Dickinson, A.;
Heyes, C.;
Press, C.;
(2010)
Acquisition of automatic imitation is sensitive to
sensorimotor contingency.
(ELSE Working Papers
361).
ESRC Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution: London, UK.
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Abstract
The associative sequence learning model proposes that the development of the mirror system depends on the same mechanisms of associative learning that mediate Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning. To test this model, two experiments used the reduction of automatic imitation through incompatible sensorimotor training to assess whether mirror system plasticity is sensitive to contingency (i.e. the extent to which activation of one representation predicts activation of another). In Experiment 1, residual automatic imitation was measured following incompatible training in which the action stimulus was a perfect predictor of the response (contingent) or not at all predictive of the response (non-contingent). A contingency effect was observed: there was less automatic imitation, indicative of more learning, in the contingent group. Experiment 2 replicated this contingency effect and showed that, as predicted by associative learning theory, it can be abolished by signaling trials in which the response occurs in the absence of an action stimulus. These findings support the view that mirror system development depends on associative learning, and indicate that this learning is not purely Hebbian. If this is correct, associative learning theory could be used to explain, predict and to intervene in mirror system development.
Type: | Working / discussion paper |
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Title: | Acquisition of automatic imitation is sensitive to sensorimotor contingency |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
Publisher version: | http://else.econ.ucl.ac.uk/newweb/papers.php#2010 |
Language: | English |
Keywords: | Automatic imitation, associative sequence learning, mirror neuron system, contingency, sensorimotor learning |
URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/19457 |
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