Imitation and Identification in Autism

This study was designed to test the prediction that adolescents with autism would have specific limitations in imitating the "style" of another person's actions. In a series of original tasks that tested the delayed imitation of novel nonsymbolic actions, 16 participants with autism and 16 nonautistic participants group-matched for age and verbal ability were proficient in copying goal-directed actions, but in 3 out of 4 tasks, strikingly fewer participants with autism imitated with style with which the demonstrator executed the actions. An additional finding was that on 2 conditions that involved copying self-orientated actions, only 5 of the participants with autism but 15 of the 16 nonautistic participants spontaneously adopted the orientation-to-self on at least 1 occasion. The results are discussed with reference to theories concerning imitation deficits in autism, and with regard to the proposal that autism involves an impairment in intersubjective contact between affected individuals and others (Hobson, 1989, 1993; Rogers & Pennington, 1991).