Humans appear to be unique in the extent upon which we rely on culture: on the tools, words and ideas we acquire from others. Through imitation and teaching, culture functions as a second inheritance ...

From the moment we are born, imitation is central to how we learn and grow. Babies begin by imitating facial expressions and smiles, followed by mimicking sounds as they learn language. As we enter ...

For decades, there have been studies suggesting that human babies are capable of imitating facial gestures, hand gestures, facial expressions, or vocal sounds right from their first weeks of life ...

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, dogs often shower us with praise. New research has just determined dogs automatically imitate us, even when it is not in their best interest to do so.

Imitation is a key part of the way humans learn. We can pick up new skills by observing others: how to tie shoelaces or hold a pencil in school, how to hit a tennis serve or swing a putter down the ...

Source: Ben McLeod, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 I got a note from Pam Lee who lives in Vancouver, Canada. She described some interesting behavior displayed by her 3-year-old Alaskan Malamute, Icy.

A new study compared children's capacity to imitate behavior with the same capacity of humans' closest living great ape relatives, the bonobos. The study found that bonobos do not copy actions as ...