EDITORIAL. 



SOME UNEMPHASIZED ASPECTS OF COMPARATIVE PSVCHOLOGV. 



We desire to enter a plea for a more detailed and extend- 

 ed study of what, for lack of a better term, we ma\- call imita- 

 tion in the mental processes of animals. 



The word imitation is not used in any exact sense by 

 writers on comparati\c psycholog)-. Kixnaman* and Llo\d 

 Morgan- have summarized the main facts cox-ered b\- the word 

 probabl}' better than an)- of the other contemporary writers 

 who deal exclusi\-el}' with the mental processes of animals. 

 They agree in the following classification of imitative behavior: 



1. Mimicry which lies below the le\'cl of imitation. 



2. Instinctive imitation, or automatic behaxior. 



3. Intelligent imitation : 



a) of actions. 



b) of results 



Baldwin' uses the terms '"simple" and "persistent." Ex- 

 amples of these various types of imitation cannot be gi\en here. 

 We shall assume that every one is more or less familiar with 

 them. In this paper the word imitation designates what Mor- 

 gan calls intelligent iimtatioii, 



Thokndike states emphatically that imitation in the, above 

 sense does not exist in animals lower than the primates. In the 

 Mental Life of Monke\ s (p. 42) he concludes: "Nothing in 

 my experience wiih these animals then favors the hypothesis 



' A. I. KlNN\M.\N. Mfiital Lite of Two Macacu- Rhe-u- Monkey- in Cap- 

 tivity, it. Anuru an J oH>>ial of Psychology, \ Ol. XIII. N<i. 2. ].. 19t). 

 2 I.I.I iVD M'iRi.AN. Habit and Instinct, yy. 169-174. 

 ^ Mental Developim-nl, p. 132. 



