Imitative vs. Emulative Learning

In cultural psychology, I have learned about imitative and emulative learning. Imitative learning is defined by Tomasello et al. (1993) as a situation when the learner internalizes something of the model's goals and behavioural strategies. I have utilized this type of learning through observing and imitating my parents as well as other role models as I have grown up. Examples of this type of behaviour and how it is linked to my personal experiences vary from how I learned to tie my shoes to how I learned to do larger tasks such as how I cook a certain meal or how I drive my car. I would have to say that my parents have had the biggest impact on me as far as imitative learning goes, and through their skills I have adapted identical ways and processes of doing things.
A common critique when it comes to almost any task is "why do you do this task this particular way?" In many situations, I simply respond by saying "that is how I learned through observation." When learning to drive, both of my parents took turns giving instructions and having patience while I learned the rules and ways of the road. I remember clearly that I began driving with two feet opposed to using the same foot for both the gas and the break. My reasoning for this was because that is how I had observed my father driving for as long as I had remembered. However, when my mother got in the car with me one day to go for a drive, she realized what I was doing and immediately critiqued the way I was choosing to drive. Of course her reasons were fair; she was concerned it was an issue of safety and I could not argue with her over that. Learning through imitation can certainly lead to positive outcomes, but bad habits also have a tendency to sneak in there as well.
Emulative learning is defined by Heine (2012) as a type of learning focused on the environmental events that are involved. Although I have also experienced this type of learning, I have not experienced it as frequently as imitative learning. A personal experience with emulative learning would be when I played hockey and I was learning to shoot a puck. My father tried countless times to show me the steps he takes to complete a slap shot. No matter how many times I tried, I could not seem to be successful with my shot by following the exact same steps he was taking. So instead, I changed my form a little bit as well as the way I moved my body to complete the same task as he was performing, but in a slightly different way.
When looking at different types of learning as a whole, it is interesting to see how people can perform the same task in so many different ways. The way we go about doing things will likely depend on how those around us are doing them as we are constantly being influenced by the culture we live in.