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When Imitation Meets Context: The Case of Initiative Complementary Action

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Abstract

Numerous studies have shown when perceiving the body movements of other people, we automatically imitate the observed actions through our motor system. Under certain social contexts, however, automatic imitation is not always beneficial, and a complementary action (which appears as a reversal imitation action) is instead required. Past research on this topic mainly focused on “passive” complementary actions, which were triggered by external actions that are bound by the requirements or meanings of social interaction. The present study investigated the activation of “initiative” complementary action in the absence of requests for interaction by an agent. Through a motor priming paradigm, it was found that complementary actions arose in a dropping action situation, wherein an object held by an actor was suddenly dropped as it is moved towards the plate. But this was only observed when the actors carried out the action using their left hands. This finding suggests that “initiative” complementary action can be performed in situations wherein external action does not require to interact with the observer. This supports and extends the idea that complementary actions are highly responsive to social context.

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Notes

  1. Previous findings showed that imitation of two hands was found to operate in a specular way (Bekkering et al. 2000; Liepelt et al. 2010; Koski et al. 2003)

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by a grant from Programs of Scientific Research Foundation for Doctor (ZK16037) of Baoji University of Arts and Sciences to Liang Zhao. I would like to thank Editage for English language editing.

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  1. School of Education, Baoji University of Arts and Sciences, Baoji, 721000, China

    Liang Zhao

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  1. Liang Zhao
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Correspondence to Liang Zhao.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Zhao, L. When Imitation Meets Context: The Case of Initiative Complementary Action. Curr Psychol 37, 942–948 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9580-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9580-1

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