Investigating the automaticity of imitation: The role of action context

Much of the literature on imitation has shown a robust advantage for an individual's imitation of observed action over the execution of non-imitative movements. These results are typically explained as evidence that observation of actions automatically activates the motor system to directly match what is seen by priming similar actions. However, recent work has shown that subjects were able to perform non-imitative actions more efficiently than imitation when non-imitative acts were congruent with an action context (van Schie et al., 2008), a so-called action context matching effect. The present study attempts to replicate and extend this reference study by: 1) determining if action context matching could be demonstrated using a task that was not explicitly cooperative, 2) using a procedure offering a better measure of imitation fidelity, 3) discovering if action context matching would be revealed when employing more than just the two action contexts, and 4) determining if action context matching would result in the facilitation of multiple behaviors if each was context appropriate. To this end, a non-cooperative line-drawing task was used which employed two (Experiment 1) and then four action contexts (Experiments 2 and 3), including an action context that included more than one appropriate response (Experiments 2 and 3). Action context matching effects were found in most contexts and across multiple dependent measures of performance. In addition, facilitation for all actions that matched a context was found in the condition with more than one appropriate response. However, some evidence also supported the operation of direct matching on certain trials. These outcomes were taken as support for a view of imitation in which it is characterized as a more flexible, less automatic process that can be modulated by contextual and social factors. This view also leaves room for the simultaneous operation of both direct and action context matching.