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A methodological behaviourist model for imitation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 1998

Paul J. M. Jorion
Affiliation:
Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Du sujet: Theorie et Praxis (STP), Paris; and Department of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-5100 jorion@2aris.ss.uci.edu aris.ss.uci.edu/~jorion

Abstract

Byrne & Russon's target article displays all the difficulties encountered when one fails to take a methodological behaviourist approach to imitation. Their conceptual apparatus is grounded in a mixture of introspection and folk psychology. Their distinction between action-level and program-level imitation falters on goal imputation for sequential acts. In an alternative gradient descent model, behaviour can be simulated as a frustration/satisfaction gradient descent in the animal's “potentiality space,” as defined by knowledge, inventiveness, and the surrounding environment.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
© 1998 Cambridge University Press

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