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imitative learning

the first stage of cultural learning, which occurs when the learner internalizes aspects of the model’s behavioral strategies and intentions for executing the behavior. According to cultural learning theory, imitative learning is followed by instructed learning and collaborative learning. [proposed by U.S. psychologist Michael Tomasello (1950–  ) and colleagues]

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Psychology term of the day

January 30th 2025

Gödel’s proof

Gödel’s proof

a proof that in any logic system at least as powerful as arithmetic it is possible to state theorems that can be proved to be neither true nor false, using only the proof rules of that system. Published in 1931, this incompleteness result was very challenging to the mathematics of the time. British mathematician Alan Turing (1912–1954), with his proof of the undecidability of the halting problem, extended this result to computation (see Turing machine). [Kurt Gödel (1906–1978), Austrian-born U.S. mathematician]