Byrne & Russon propose an account of imitation that mirrors levels of behav
ioral organization, but they perpetuate a tendency to dismiss imitation by
members of most species as the result of more primitive processes, even tho
ugh these alternative phenomena are often poorly understood. They argue tha
t the prerequisites to program-level imitation are present in great apes, b
ut the same prerequisites appear to be present in a broad range of species.
The distribution of imitative capacity across species may be more limited
by research methodology than by cognitive ability.