Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 08:49:18 +0200
From: Mario Vaneechoutte <Mario.Vaneechoutte@rug.ac.be>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Re: neonatal imitation
Bill Benzon wrote:
> For photos of neonatal imitation, go to this URL:
>
> http://www.percep.demon.co.uk/gesture.htm#perc
>
> Bill B
Thanks Bill. This Robin Allott has quite interesting ideas (quite well
corresponding to the ideas of John Skoyles).
I asked a developmental psychologist about it and this was the
answer:"Many developmentalists - most nowadays, I think - would say
that newborn babies imitate facial expressions. I have seen very
convincing videos, though these can also be ambiguous. There is of
course prolonged later development in the range of things that can be
imitated - and the time that can separate the imitation from that
which is imitated. Hope this helps. There is no entirely
straightforward and simple answer. Is there ever??"
In general, the delay between the observation of what is imitated and the
fact of imitation seems to exist in humans just as well as in animals.
The existence of this delay in animals was taken (by Derek, I believe) as
an indication that this was not really imitation.
I would have no problems in accepting this phenomenon, in case it was
also present in at least some animals. If people and only people all of a
sudden can do this, we have the same kind of macromutation Bickerton
proposed to explain language. That is what basically bothers me. It
sounds to me as: 'And than God created imitation and man was born',
pretty much the same story as we heard and sometimes hear on language,
consciousness, free will, ... which are all so said typically human,
completely new, out of nothing characteristics which distinguish mankind
from animalkind.
>
>
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-- Mario Vaneechoutte Department Clinical Chemistry, Microbiology & Immunology University Hospital De Pintelaan 185 9000 GENT Belgium Phone: +32 9 240 36 92 Fax: +32 9 240 36 59 E-mail: Mario.Vaneechoutte@rug.ac.beJ. Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/
The memetic origin of language: humans as musical primates http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/1998/vol2/vaneechoutte_m&skoyles_jr.html
=============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit