The article goes on to describe the skepticism in the scientific community: “...by the academic definition of imitation, Kashi’s response of circling Flanery af

The article goes on to describe the skepticism in the scientific community: “...by the academic definition of imitation, Kashi’s response of circling Flanery after Flanery circled her would not be true imitation, because Kashi was already familiar with circling as part of her freestyle training. In other words, Kashi might have circled Flanery simply because, in the past, she had been rewarded so frequently for doing exactly that, rather than truly understanding the current task.” The main point of the essay urges a closer collaboration between trainers and scientists in the field.