IMITATION IN PIGEONS (COLUMBA LIVIA): THE ROLE OF THE CONSUMMATORY RESPONSE

Abstract

Imitation was assessed in three groups of pigeons that observed the whole response-consequence-consumption sequence, only the response and consequence or the response alone. The former two groups were more likely to imitate the response they observed than the latter, which suggests that the observation of the consequence is necessary for imitation to occur, but not the observation of the consumption. These results have implications for theories of perspective taking in animals and for associative conditioning accounts of imitation.