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Imitation of facial gestures by an infant chimpanzee

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Abstract

A nursery-reared infant chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) was tested for the ability to imitate human facial gestures, following the procedure ofMeltzoff andMoore (1977). The subject was observed between 5 to 15 weeks of ages. The results showed that the subject could imitate tongue protrusion in the age of 5–10 weeks and mouth opening between the ages of 5–11 weeks. However, from 12 to 15 weeks, the infant did not imitate the facial gestures. The present study clearly demonstrated that the infant chimpanzee could imitate human facial gestures in a particular period.

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Myowa, M. Imitation of facial gestures by an infant chimpanzee. Primates 37, 207–213 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02381408

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02381408

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