the history of the intermodal model began when  meltzoff and moore defined it as an innate human ability, essential to imitation. they hypothesized intermodal mapping acted as a sequence in which an infant observes an adult’s facial acts and creates a “supramodal” framework. with proprioceptive feedback, an infant can then distinguish whether their actions are equivalent to those they see. therefore, stimuli are not necessarily restricted to a singular sense, but allow them to exist universally in the brain and integrate in ways to produce complex outcomes. this is illustrated specifically in how visual and proprioceptive systems (senses) integrate to aid imitation. meltzoff and moore’s studies typically mirror the headturn preference procedure (hpp) as they observe both behavior in relation to response time in infants.