Mechanisms of imitation: The relabeled story

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.