This study examines the possibility that the relational stimulus arising from being imitated serves a reinforcing function. A total of 48 preschool children performed a task in which some neutral stimuli were repeatedly associated either with an adult's matching the subject's behavior or the adult's mismatching the subject's behavior. (Author/GO)

In this study, the effects of rewards on same-different judgments of size, color, and weight were investigated. Subjects were 45 children at the kindergarten and first-grade level. The children were assigned to one of three conditions: (1) rewarded for reporting black in the identification of the colors of balls contained inside gray jars, (2)…

Six studies relevant to the analysis of generalized imitative behavior are described. The first examined the role of verbal instructions in generalized imitation by comparing the use of a "do this" instruction with no such instruction and the use of positive reinforcement with no reinforcement. The tenacity of generalized imitation in this study…