Skip to main content
Log in

Goal-Directed and Goal-Less Imitation in Autism Spectrum Disorder

  • Published:
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

To investigate how people with Autism are affected by the presence of goals during imitation, we conducted a study to measure movement kinematics and eye movements during the imitation of goal-directed and goal-less hand movements. Our results showed that a control group imitated changes in movement kinematics and increased the level that they tracked the hand with their eyes, in the goal-less compared to goal-direction condition. In contrast, the ASD group exhibited more goal-directed eye movements, and failed to modulate the observed movement kinematics successfully in either condition. These results increase the evidence for impaired goal-less imitation in ASD, and suggest that there is a reliance on goal-directed strategies for imitation in ASD, even in the absence of visual goals.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Eye tracking was attempted on all participants, but due to the difficulties in obtaining corneal reflection on participants wearing glasses, and with participant anxiety, data was not collected from all participants.

References

  • Abadi, R. V., & Gowen, E. (2004). Characteristics of saccadic intrusions. Vision Research, 44(23), 2675–2690.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Behrmann, M., Avidan, G., Leonard, G. L., Kimchi, R., Luna, B., Humphreys, K., et al. (2006). Configural processing in autism and its relationship to face processing. Neuropsychologia, 44(1), 110–129.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bekkering, H., Wohlschlager, A., & Gattis, M. (2000). Imitation in children is goal-directed. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 53A, 153–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bird, G., Catmur, C., Silani, G., Frith, C., & Frith, U. (2006). Attention does not modulate neural responses to social stimuli in autism spectrum disorders. Neuroimage, 31, 1614–1624.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Boucher, J., & Lewis, V. (1992). Unfamiliar face recognition in relatively able autistic children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 33, 843–859.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brenner, E., & Berg, A. V. (1994). Judging object velocity during smooth pursuit eye movements. Experimental Brain Research, 99, 316–324.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brugger, A., Lariviere, L. A., Mumme, D. L., & Bushnell, E. W. (2007). Doing the right thing: Infants selection of actions to imitate from observed event sequences. Child Development, 78, 806–824.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Burr, D. C., Morrone, M. C., & Ross, J. (1994). Selective suppression of the magnocellular pathway during saccadic eye movements. Nature, 371(6497), 511–513.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Catteneo, L., Fabbri-Destro, M., Boria, S., Pieraccini, C., Monti, A., Cossu, G., et al. (2007). Impairment of action chains in autism and its possible role in intention understanding. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104, 17825–17830.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Celani, G. (2002). Human beings, animals, and inanimate objects: What do people with autism like? Autism, 6(1), 93–102.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chartrand, T. L., & Bargh, J. A. (1999). The Chameleon effect: The perception-behavior link and social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(6), 893–910.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Crane, L., Goddard, L., & Pring, L. (2009). Specific and general autobiographical knowledge in adults with autism spectrum disorders: The role of personal goals. Memory, 17(5), 557–576.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson, G., Meltzoff, N., Osterling, J., Rinalda, J., & Brown, E. (1998). Children with autism fail to orient to naturally occurring social stimuli. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 28(6), 479–485.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Freitag, C. M., Konrad, C., Haberlen, M., Von Gontard, A., Reith, W., Troje, N. F., et al. (2008). Perception of biological motion in autism spectrum disorders. Neuropsychologica, 46(5), 1480–1494.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glazebrook, C., Gonzalez, D., Hansen, S., & Elliott, D. (2009). The role of vision for online control of manual aiming movements in persons with autism spectrum disorders. Autism, 13(4), 411–433.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg, M. C., Lasker, A. G., Zee, D. S., Garth, E., Tien, A., & Landa, R. J. (2002). Deficits in the initiation of eye movements in the absence of a visual target in adolescents in high functioning autism. Neuropsychologia, 40(12), 2039–2049.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gowen, E., Stanley, J., & Miall, R. C. (2008). Movement interference in autism spectrum disorder. Neuropsychologica, 46, 1060–1068.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, A. F. de. C. (2008). Emulation and mimicry for social interaction: A theoretical approach to imitation in autism. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61(1), 101–115.

  • Hamilton, A. F. de. C., Brindley, R. M., & Frith, U. (2007). Imitation and action understanding in autism spectrum disorders: How valid is a hypothesis of a deficit in the mirror neuron system? Neuropsychologica, 45, 1859–1868.

  • Hobson, R. P., & Hobson, J. A. (2008). Dissociable aspects of imitation: A study in autism. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 101, 170–185.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hobson, R. P., & Lee, A. (1999). Imitation and identification in autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40, 649–659.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Iacoboni, M., & Dapretto, M. (2006). The mirror neuron system and the consequences of its dysfunction. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7(12), 942–951.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, R. J. (1979). Visual resolution and contour interaction in the fovea and periphery. Vision Research, 19, 1187–1195.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kana, R. K., Wadsworth, H. W., & Travers, B. G. (2011). A systems level analysis of the mirror neuron hypothesis and imitation impairments in autism. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 35, 894–902.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Karatekin, C. (2007). Eye tracking studies of normative and atypical development. Developmental Review, 27(3), 283–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klin, A., Lin, D. J., Gorrindo, P., Ramsay, G., & Jones, W. (2009). Two-year olds with autism orient to non-social contingencies rather than biological motion. Nature, 459(7244), 257–261.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lakin, J., & Chartrand, T. L. (2003). Using nonconscious behavioral mimicry to create affiliation and rapport. Psychological Science, 14, 334–339.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Landry, R., & Bryson, S. (2004). Impaired disengagement of attention in young children with autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45(6), 1115–1122.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Leighton, J., Bird, G., Charman, T., & Heyes, C. (2008). Weak imitative performance is not due to a functional ‘mirroring’ deficit in adults with autism spectrum disorder. Neurospychologica, 46(4), 1041–1049.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McIntosh, D. N., Reichmann-Decker, A., Winkielman, P., & Wilbarger, J. L. (2006). When the social mirror breaks: Deficits in automatic, but not voluntary mimicry of emotional facial expressions in autism. Developmental Science, 9, 295–302.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rees, G., Frith, C. D., & Lavie, N. (1997). Modulating social perception by varying attentional load in an unrelated task. Science, 278(5343), 1616–1619.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, S. J., Bennetto, L., McEvoy, R., & Pennington, B. F. (1996). Imitation and pantomime in high-functioning adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Child Development, 67, 2060–2073.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, S. J., Hepburn, S. L., Stackhouse, T., & Wehner, E. (2003). Imitation performance in toddlers with autism and those with other developmental disorders. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44, 763–781.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, S. J., Young, G. S., Cook, I., Giolzetti, A., & Ozonoff, S. (2010). Imitating actions on objects in early onset and regressive autism: Effects and implications of task characteristics on performance. Development and Psychopathology, 22, 71–85.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rumiati, R., & Tessari, A. (2002). Imitation of novel and well known actions: The role of short term memory. Experimental Brain Research, 142, 425–433.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schutz, A. C., Braun, D. I., Kerzel, D., & Gegenfurtner, K. R. (2008). Improved visual sensitivity during smooth pursuit eye movements. Nature Neuroscience, 11(10), 1211–1216.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Spengler, S., Bird, G., & Brash, M. (2010). Hyperimitation of actions is related to reduced understanding others’ minds in Autism Spectrum Conditions. Biological Psychiatry, 68, 1148–1155.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone, W. L., Ousley, O. Y., & Littleford, C. D. (1997). Motor imitation in young children with autism: What’s the object? Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 25, 475–485.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Swettenham, J., Baron-Cohen, S., Charman, T., Cox, A., Baird, G., Drew, A., et al. (1998). The frequency and distribution of spontaneous attention shifts between social and non social stimuli in autistic, typically developing, and non autistic developmentally delayed infants. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 39, 747–753.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Takarae, Y., Minshew, N. J., Luna, B., Krisky, C. M., & Sweeney, J. A. (2004). Pursuit eye movement deficits in autism. Brain, 127(12), 2584–2594.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Van Bareen, R., Janssen, L., Chartrand, T. L., & Dijksterhuis, A. (2009). Where is the love? Social aspects of mimicry. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Science, 364, 2381–2389.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Gog, T., Kester, T., Nievelstein, F., Giesbers, B., & Paas, F. (2009). Uncovering cognitive processes: Different techniques that can contribute to cognitive load research and instruction. Computers in Human Behavior, 25, 325–331.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanvuchelen, M., Roeyers, H., & De Weerdt, W. (2007). Nature of motor imitation problems in school aged boys with autism: A motor or a cognitive problem? Autism, 11(3), 225–240.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vivanti, G., Nadig, A., Ozonoff, S., & Rogers, S. J. (2008). What do children with autism attend to during imitation tasks? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Special Issues on Imitation, 101, 186–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whiten, A., McGuigan, N., Marshall-Pescini, S., & Hopper, L. M. (2009). Emulation, imitation, over-imitation and the scope of culture for child and chimpanzee. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 364, 2417–2428.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wild, K. S., Poliakoff, E., Jerrison, A., & Gowen, E. (2010). The influence of goals on movement kinematics during imitation. Experimental Brain Research, 204(3), 353–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. H. G., Whiten, A., & Singh, T. (2004). A systematic review of action imitation in autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34, 285–299.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. H. G., Whiten, A., Suddendhorf, T., & Perrett, D. I. (2001). Imitation, mirror neurons and autism. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 25, 287–295.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wohlschlager, A., Gattis, M., & Bekkering, H. (2003). Action generation and action perception in imitation: An instance of ideomotor principle. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Science, 358, 501–515.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kelly S. Wild.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wild, K.S., Poliakoff, E., Jerrison, A. et al. Goal-Directed and Goal-Less Imitation in Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 42, 1739–1749 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-011-1417-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-011-1417-4

Keywords

Navigation