Motor mimicry

Key takeaways

Motor mimicry belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Motor mimicry to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Motor mimicry from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Motor mimicry is a common neurological phenomenon where a person reacts to an event happening to someone else. Examples of motor mimicry include wincing at someone else's injury or ducking when someone else does. Motor mimicry can also have more social and emotional manifestations, like unconsciously matching a peer's posture or speech patterns.

The working definition of motor mimicry is: 1. an action similar to one made by the other person 2. an action one that the other person might make in their situation 3. not what an observer would do simply as an observer 4. not irrelevant or involuntary behaviors

Historically Traditional views on motor mimicry have seen it stemming from empathy, or feeling what someone else is. This theory on motor mimicry matches some resulting behaviors of mimicry, such as when someone is injured or emotionally in distress. While motor mimicry was seen as a form of sympathy, H. Spencer (1870) called motor mimicry a "presentative" sympathy, the most primitive of the types of sympathy Spence came up with, for being more immediate and reactive. Rather than "representative" sympathy, which would be more conscious and emotional. More recently, it has been revealed that motor mimicry is more communicative and acts as a nonverbal message between people (Bavelas et al. 1986). In general, motor mimicry has been observed for more than two centuries, and while it has been dismissed as being "primitive" but has still evaded many theories made about the phenomenon.

Motor mimicry in infants and children In the early 1900s, psychologists started focusing on motor mimicry in infants and young children. In Allport's study on infants, he observed that "the child tends to assume the movements, strains and attitudes of the model." and that "he cannot help doing so". Later on, Allport concluded that mimicry was a genetic and conceptual way to social learning. However, Allport disagreed with those that thought conditioning was a possible explanation for motor mimicry in children. Rather, he concluded that "this process of empathy remains a riddle in social psychology". Supporting Allport's argument, Darwin also observed the presence of nonverbal sympathy in his 4-month old son. Darwin noted that his son would smile when he did and by the time he was 6 months old, Darwin's son would assume a "melancholy expression" when his nurse pretended to cry. From this, Darwin anticipated that motor mimicry was a form of nonverbal social communication.

Experimentation

Hull (1933) In 1933, Clark Hull was the first person to experiment with motor mimicry and record the results. Hull arranged for an observer to witness another person straining and reaching, and by pinning a clothespin to the observer's clothes and attaching it to a rotary event recorder, Hull was able to trace the movements of the observer. Hull found the even while just watching someone reach for something, the observer made traces of the movements that the subject they were watching did.

O'Toole and Dubin (1968) Later, O'Toole and Dubin (1968) took Hull's experiment more in depth. In two parallel experiments, O'Toole and Dubin studied observers saying forward while a subject reached for something in front of them, as well as mothers opening their mouths while spoon feeding a baby. In the first experiment, they found that while having an actor reach forward, observers consistently swayed forwards as well, instead of other directions. However, a large issue in this experiment was that O'Toole and Dubin did not take into account static ataxia, which is the natural forward movement we have even with the individual is attempting to stand perfectly still. Additionally, neither of O'Toole and Dubin's experiments were filmed, leaving us with only an observer's recollection and interpretation of the results. In the second experiment, they found evidence that the mother only opened her mouth after her baby had, ruling out that the mother was really mimicking the baby and not trying to induce the baby to open their mouths.

MacInnis (1979) It wasn't until 1979 that MacInnis introduced videotaped stimuli. MacInnis found that around 40% of the subjects displayed mimicking movements towards the stimuli they were exposed to. He also recorded the subjects feelings of empathy towards the stimuli. The mimicked movements and feelings of empathy had no relation according to MacInnis.

Social settings A large characteristic in interactions between people in social settings is unconscious motor mimicry. Taking on the same posture, head movements, gestures and even speech patterns as the person interacting with us is a universal human characteristic. However, we don't mimic everyone around us all the time. Chartrand & Bargh (1999) showed that people who have higher perspective taking (paying more attention to the people and situation around them with respect to how others points of view) tend to mimic the people around them more than those lower in perspective taking.

Factors

Care for others When considering social mimicry, how a person feels about, or empathizes with the people around them is a large factor in where someone will mimic those around them. People who care more about those around them and pay more attention to their circumstances are more likely to mimic those around them than those whose attention is focused elsewhere.

Affiliation goals Affiliation goals has been shown to increase mimicry. For example, a study done found, "that men mimic a physically attractive woman more when they are trying to express romantic interest".

Eye contact Maintained eye contact increases mimicry between social partners. A study by Chartrand and Duffy showed that automatic mimicry of hand movements increased when the participants were making continued eye contact.

Positive mood states In general, people in a positive mood have been shown to facilitate mimicry in social settings.

Inhibitors Just as how there are factors that promote mimicry in social situations, there are also factors that inhibit mimicry between people.

Disaffiliation goals People in romantic relationships are less likely to mimic an attractive person than someone who is not in a romantic relationship. Furthermore, people tended to mimic an attractive person even less when they reported more love for their romantic partner.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Motor mimicry

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Motor mimicry claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Motor mimicry before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Motor mimicry ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Motor mimicry

In research: Motor mimicry appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Motor mimicry in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Motor mimicry is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Motor cognition, Neurology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Motor mimicry outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Motor mimicry in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Motor mimicry means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Motor mimicry out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Motor mimicry in simple terms?

Motor mimicry is a common neurological phenomenon where a person reacts to an event happening to someone else. Examples of motor mimicry include wincing at someone else's injury or ducking when someone else does.

Why does Motor mimicry matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Motor mimicry?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Motor mimicry.