Abstract

Humans are imitative animals, and the processes which allow them to reproduce others' movements have long been investigated. Albeit numerous studies have been produced so far, we are still trying to understand whether imitation depends upon a substantially automatic dedicated system or whether it is realized by a more general mechanism, which also regulates other types of stimulus-response associations. The aim of the present work is to examine the most recent empirical evidence on imitation in light of a scarcely acknowledged distinction, that between specular and anatomical imitation. This work intends to emphasize the implications of this distinction for the development of an integrated model of human imitative competence.