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Article: Outline for a functional analysis of imitation in animals.
- Article from:
- The Psychological Record
- Article date:
- March 22, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 The Psychological Record. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Diverse, unusual, and often highly complex behaviors are emitted by individual organisms across the animal kingdom. One feature common to most behavioral patterns is that the same behaviors tend to be emitted by conspecifics, particularly those within the same social group. In order to determine how conspecifics have come to behave in similar ways it is first useful to examine the various processes by which behavioral patterns may initially arise. By then exploring each of these mechanisms, the conditions necessary for within-species behavioral homogeneity can be deduced.
It is generally acknowledged that there are three interrelated means by which individuals ...