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Journal of Personality an d Social Psychology1970, Vol. 16, No. 4 , 681-688

OBSERVATIONALLY INDUCED CHANGES IN CHILDREN'SINTERROGATIVE CLASSES 'TED L. ROSENTHAI,,2 BARRY J. ZIMMERMAN, AN D K A T H L E E N B U R N I N G

University of ArizonaA model's influence on the informat ion seeking of 140 cultural ly disadvantagedsixth-grade children was studied in four variations. Separate groups observed 12diverse instances within a l terna t ive question classifications based on nominal orphysical s t imulus attributes, func t iona l s t imulus uses, causal relat ionships regardings t imul i , and j u d g m e n t s of value or preference concern ing s t imul i ; pictorial s t i mu l ithat varied in content, color, and n u m b e r across trials were used to prevent responsestereotypy. No extrinsic reward was offered. By reference to base-line responding,significant imi t a t ion of all quest ion classes was found , and al l ques t ion classes weregeneralized to a new set of s t imulus p ic tu res .

Curious ly little research in th e social l earn-in g tradition has been directed toward conceptf o rma t io n or abstract categorization. Tradi-tionally, developmental issues of selecting andgrouping, and the evolution of cognitive classi-fications (e.g., the abstraction of commonstimulus properties f rom dif ferent objects),have been the particular concerns of organismi-cally oriented scholars (cf. Baldwin, 1968).Although one might anticipate that higherorder conceptual phenomena could be modi-fied by observing another person's responses,to date few studies based on a social learningposit ion have involved abstract or rule-gov-e rned cognitive behavior.Bandura and McDonald (1963) have shownthat modeling can in f luence a child's moralj u d gm en t s toward criteria di f fe rent f rom h isoriginal disposition, and these results havebeen replicated by Cowan, Langer, Heaven-r ich, and Nathanson (1969). Recently, sociallanguage learning research has demonstratedmodel-induced changes in the use of passive andprepositional linguistic constructions (Bandura& Harris, 1966; Odom, Liebert, & Hill, 1968)

1This study was supported by the Arizona Centerfor Early Childhood Education and was performedpu r s ua n t t o a contract with the Uni t ed States O f f i c e ofE duca t io n , D e p a r t m e n t of Health, Educa t ion , and Wel-fare . The authorswish to acknowledge the generous co-operation of Principals E. B. Appleman, W. F. Braucher,C. E. Lopez, and S. Polito, of their teachers, and of theadmin is t ra t ion of Tucson School District I. They aregrate fu l to Alber t B a ndu r a , Wayne R. Carroll, ClintonL. Traf ton, an d Glenn M . White fo r their helpfulsuggestions regarding the manuscript.2 Requests fo r reprints should be sent to Ted L.Rosenthal , Department of Psychology, University ofArizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721.

and in the parameters of verb tense andke rne l sentence s t r u c t u r e (Carroll, Rosenthal,& Brysh, 1969; Rosenthal & W hi tebook , 1970).The emphasis of all the foregoing experi-ments has been to demonstrate that particularl inguist ic structures, or judgmental criteria,were subject to social modification. Attentionwas not directed to transmitting a range ofconceptually different , rule-governed dimen-sions by providing separate groups with variedinstances of quite diverse, abstract criteria fororgan iz ing stimuli. Thus, within th e languagecategories of tense or passive constructions,th e range of instances is , relatively, con-s t ra ined . When, for example, th e model pro-duced the past progressive (e.g., was pushing),all his instances had to include the "was"auxi l ia ry and the "-ing" inf lect ion, therebyconst ra in ing stimulus diversity. Furthermore,l i t t le, if any, controlled experimentation hasbeen devoted to the development or modifica-tion of informat ion-seeking behavior. By meansof the interrogative mood, one can both solicitinformation about the world, and control, ordesignate, the aspects or dimensions of eventswhich comprise appropriate response to one'squery; accordingly, information seeking wouldappear to merit study.

The present experiments investigated amodel's inf luence upon children's fonnulationof questions regarding a set of stimulus pic-tures. Separate groups of children observedvar ied instances of questions representing oneof four abstract classes. From th e instances dis-played, it was possible to induce the generalproperties of that class of questions which th echild observed. The classes of questions studied

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68 2 T. L. ROSENTIIAL, B. J. Z l M M K E M A N , ANDK. DURN INGpertained, alternatively, to the, identity 401-physical attributes of the stimuli; to theirpragmatic f u n c t i o n ; to causal relationships i n -volving the stimuli; and to judgments of valueor preference concerning the stimuli. Subse-quent to the modeling phase, and without,f u r t h e r performance by the model, a new setofstimulus pictures was introduced to assess g en -eralization of information-seeking categories.

The four question classifications presentlystudied were intended to exemplify widelydivergent rule-governed dimensions for theconceptual organization of a set of stimuli.Additionally, the question classes did providepartial overlap with Piaget's (1959) descrip-tive classification of children's questions. Thus,Piaget's "why" group of questions would allfal l within our category of causal relationshipsconcerning stimuli, as would Piaget's "ques-tions of causal explanation." Piaget's "ques-tions of classification and valuation" have, inthe present procedure, been partitioned be-tween nominal or physical stimulus properties,an d judgments of value or pre f e ren ce reg a rd in gstimuli. Indeed, Piaget's definit ion of valuation("the judgment of value," 1959, p. 217) isidentical with that governing the presentcategory of value questions.

METHODSubjectsFrom sixth-grade classes in four schools in Tucson,Arizona, 70 boys and 70 girls were randomly drawn andassigned to experimental or control variations. Thechildren ranged in age f rom 11 to 13 years an d repre-sented disadvantaged populations, with a high propor -tion of Mexican-Amer ican youngs ter s in the sample. Al l

schools f rom which subjects were drawn were receivingfederal assistance under Title I f unds for impacted areas.To each experimental variation, and to the controlgroup, 14 boys and 14 girls were r a ndo m ly ass igned .Materials and Model's Questions

Tw o parallel but different sets of 12 stimuli eachwere prepared; in each set, items adapted and r edrawnfrom the Van Alstyne Picture Vocabulary Test (show-ing one achromatic common object, e.g., a typewriter,per card) were successively alternated with unpub-lished items developed by the Demons t ra t ion andResearch Center for Early Education, Peabody College(showing three variously colored common objects, e.g.,a yellow balloon, a yellow banana, and a red apple, percard). Thus, within each set of stimulus pictures,consecutive items varied in number , co lo r , and pic-

tor ial content. Th e first set of pictures was displayedto all subjects in each experiment dur ing base l ine,wa s th e vehicle for the model's questions in the exper i-mental variations, and was rcexposed to all subjects toassess imitative (and control group) changes. Thesecond set o f pictures was subsequent ly displayedwi t ho u t model ing to al l subjects, Lo assess genera l iza -t ion of quest ion fo rmula t ion .I ndependen t of assignment to e xp e r i me n t a l questionclass, th e model's questions always involved 12 diverseinstances of the criteria governing a class. Thus, forthe experiment involving nominal physical questions,the model ' s questions i nc l uded : "What shape is that?"and "Is that made of wood? " For the func t ional usesvar ia t ion , th e model ' s questions i nc l uded : "What doyou use it fo r ?" and "Could you put water in this?"For the causal relations variation, the model's questionsincluded: "When does the bell on the typewriter ring?"and "How come the guitar makes music?" For thevalue judgments variation, th e model's questions in -c luded : "Which do you think is the prettiest?" and"What do you like about this?" The comple te set ofth e model's questions fo r each experiment is providedelsewhere.3

For each experimental variation, responses werecoded as representing instances of the model's questionclasses or as "other"; thus, with in each question varia-tion, th e subjects' base-line, imitation, a nd genera l i za-tion scores comprised th e n u m b e r of responses fal l inginto the model's question category. For control sub-jects, the base-line, imitation, and generalization fre-quencies of response were separately scored for eachquestion category to determine if the control grouphad shown any "spontaneous" changes from base lineto imitation or generalization retests with in the sepa-rate ques t ion categories.

Pilot testing had established interscorer a g r e e m e n texceeding 95% of utterances, an d consequently, onlyone scorer coded the response data. The assignment ofutterances to response categories proved relativelyeasy, and scoring problems were noted only in some3% of responses; these difficult instances were resolvedby discussion a m o n g t he au thors .Design an d Procedure

For each experiment, half of the subjects of each sexwere randomly assigned to implicit or explicit modelingi n s t r uc t i ons treatments; thus, seven boys and sevengirls served in the a l t e rna t ive ins t ruct iona l treatmentsfo r each study. To p r even t temporal s eq uence effectsf rom inf luencing the results , ex pe r i men ta l (and control)3 A two-page table presenting sequentially the model'squestions in the four question class variations has beendeposited with the National Auxiliary PublicationsService. Order D o c u m e n t N o. 01186 from The NationalAuxil iary Publications Service of the American Society

fo r Informat ion Science, % C C M Inform at ion Sc iences,Inc., 909 Third Avenue , New York, 10022. Remit inadvice $5.00 for photocopies or $2.00 for microficheand make checks payable to: Research and MicrofilmPublications, Inc.


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INDUCED CHANGES IN CHILDRKN'S INTERROGATIVE CLASSES 683variat ions were s tudied con cu rrent ly within the s a m el i me per iod, as determined by random a s s ig nm en t .

The subject was taken to a room at his school bythe adult male experimenter and there was int roducedto the adult f emale model ; it should be noted thatwhereas most subjects were of Mexican-Ame rican ex-f r ac t ion , both ad ul t s were , in appearance , obvious lyAnglo-Americans. In base l ine, the exper im en t e r i n -s t ruct ed the subject as follows: "I'm goin g to showyou a ser ies of cards. Ask som ethin g abo ut each card."Then, "Here is the f j nex t ] card, ask s o me t h i n g a b o u tit," etc.In each exper iment , before t he model ' s per fo rmance ,the explicit ins t ruct ions t reatment was directed asfollows: "Now this lady is going to m a k e up a questiona bo u t each picture. You watch and lis ten carefullyan d try to learn her questions jusl as well as you can, andyou will have another turn later." The implicit in-s t r uc t i ons o m i t t ed th e i ta l icized words, but were o t he r -wise iden t ica l . After the model ' s p e r f o r m a n ce , th eexplicit t r e a t m e n t was ins t ruc ted as fo l lows: "Nowyou c an ha ve a no t he r t u r n to m a k e u p ques t io n s a bo u teach p ic tu re . Try as hard as you can to make yourquestions like the lady's questions ," The implicit i n s t r u c -tions omitted the italicized sentence, but were otherwiseidentical. The model recorded the subject's questionresponses and hence was present during the entireprocedure. Subsequent to readministration of the initials t imul i , the new set of genera l iza t ion p ic tu res wasi n t roduced , w i t h o u t m o d e l i n g , an d all subjects receivedIh e s a m e i n s t r u c t io n s as fo l lows: "Here are some newcards . Ask a q ues t ion abou t each one."

Each exper im ent invo lved a 2X3 facto r ia l des ign ,wi th the impl ic i t and expl ic i t t r ea tment s being com-pared across base- l ine, imitat ion, and generalizat ionphases as trials. Given a significant11 overall trialseffect, Tukey's HSD tests (Kirk, 1968) were used toevaluate the changes from base line to imitation, frombase line to generalization, and between imitat ion andgenera l i za t ion phases .

RESULTSBefore discussing the major experimental

findings, it is necessary to consider the per-formance of the no-model control subjects.Initially, two cont ro l t rea tments were studied.In one, the procedures were ident ica l to theimplicit i n s t ruc t ions t r ea t men t , w i t h the omis-sion of dem onstra t ion by the model (who waspresent to record control subjects ' responses).In the attempt to determine the stability ofquestion categories in response to verbal in-structions without modeling, a second no-model control group was instructed, a f t e r baseline and before readministration of the f irs tset of pictures , as fol lows: "This t ime pretend

4 All tests of significance reported in this study werebased on too-tailed probability estimates.

that you are a grown-up when you ask thequest ions." This attempt 1o modify cont ro lsubjects ' quest ions by change-of-role i n s t r u c -t ions proved to have a ra ther smal l effect. ~ B yseparate analyses of var iance for each ques t ioncategory, the two control t reatments fa i led todiffer signif icant ly in overall mea n f r equencyof response (largest between-groups F 2.75, .10). However, some pattern-of-change ef fects differed in the causal rela-t ions and va lue judgments ques t ion c lasses ,as revealed by s ign i f ican t Groups X Tria ls in-t e rac t ions (smal le r F = 3.32, df = 2/52, p< .05) . When th e m e a n s for the a l terna t ivecontrol treatments were compared, separatelywithin each quest ion class, for base-line, imita-tion, and generalization phases, using TukeyHSD tests, only the imitation phase means forIh e value j udgmen t s category proved to differsignif icantly ("implicit"M = .14; "instructed"M = 2.00, p < .05).It thus appeared that i n s t ruc t ions to "pre-t end tha t you are a grown-up" had some in -f luence toward increasing the frequency ofvalue judgments questions. Accordingly, asthe most conservative option, the two controlt reatments were combined to form the controlgroup for evaluation of "spontaneous" inter-phase changes. The m e a n s by phase for u n -i n s t r uc t ed , ins t ruc ted , and pooled controlgroups are presented e l sewhere 6; all subse-q u e n t m e n t i o n of cont ro l resu l t s re fers to th ecombined group.In three quest ion categories, those involvingnomina l physical, funct ional uses, and causalrelations questions, the pooled control groupshowed no evidence of change from base lineacross phases (largest F = .71, df 2/52, ns);consequent ly , there seemed no need to com-pare experimental subjects ' changes from basel ine wi th cont ro l group changes in these threevaria t ions. However, in the va lue judgmentsquestion class, the control group displayed anumerical ly small, but statistically significant,increase from base line across phases (F = 5.33,d f = 2/52, p < .01). Therefore, in that study,

8 For a one-page table giving the m ea n f r equenc ie sof ques t ion responses by phase for the impl ic i t andexplic it ins t ruct ion e xper im enta l g roups , and the u n-ins t ruct ed, ins t ruct ed, and combined cont ro l g roups ,order NAPS D o c u m e n t No. 01186, remi t t ing $5.00 forphotocopies or $2.00 for microfiche. See Footnote 3 forordering information.


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684 T. L. R O S E N T H A L , B. J. Z I M M E R M A N , AND K. BURNINGTABLE !

S U M M A R Y oy A N A L Y S E S OF V A R I A N C E A C R O S S PHASESBETWEEN IMPLICIT A N D EXPLICIT GROUPS, A N DF O R G R O U P S X TRIALS I N T E R A C T I O N , W I T H I NEACH QUESTION CLASS

Q u e s t i o n g r o u p

N o m i n a l physica l mode lK u n c t i o n a l uses mode lCausal re la t ions mode lVa l u e j u d g m e n t s m o d e l

Effec ts ana lyzed (F values)Acrossphases( d f =2/52)24.08**35.84**46.75**47.07**

B e t w e e ngroups( d f =1/26)11.07*

G ro u ps XTrials( d f =2/52)2.4.52.48

"p < .01.** p < .001.

exper imenta l subjects ' changes were eva lua t edboth relative to their own base-line frequencies ,and to the controls' changes, in order to demon-strate that modeling had increased the f re-quency of value judgm ents quest ions over andabove the increase found among the cont ro ls .Comparisons within Question Classes

For a l l quest ion category groups, the pa t te rnof results was essentially the same: exposure tothe model markedly increased the children'sproduction across phases of each response classmodeled; Tukey HSD tests f u r the r revealedthat changes be tween base l ine and imi ta t ion ,and between base l ine and gen eral izat ionphases, were separately signif icant (largest p< .01); in no question class did implicit versusexplicit instructions interact with chan ge acrossphases; and the implicit-explicit variat ion onlycreated a s igni f icant betwecn-groups effect (i nfavor of the explici t instruc tions) for the nomi -nal physical category. Th e analyses of var i ancesupporting th e foregoing resul ts arc s u m m a r -ized in Table 1.Tukey tests further revealed that only thechildren who observed value judgments ques-t ions signif icantly reduced appropriate re-sponse from the im itat ion to the gen eral iza t ionphase (p < .05) . When the value judgmentssample (combining implicit and explicit varia-tions which had failed to differ) was comparedwith the control group, a highly significantbetween-groups main effect (F = 23.59, d f= 1/54, p < .001) in favor of the expe r imen ta lsubjects was found, as well as a signif icantGroups X Phases in te rac t ion t e rm (F = 33.17,

d f ~ 2/108, p < .001). Furth er analysis ofthis interaction disclosed that experimentaland control subjects did not differ in base-lineresponse, that experimentals' production ofvalue judgments questions surpassed the con-trol group in both imitat ion andgeneral izat ionphases ( larger p < .001), and that al thoughthe controls' changes f rom base line to imita-tion and from base line to generalization werenot separately significant, th e correspondingincreases between base l ine and each otherphase were separately significant for the ex-per imen ta l group ( larger p < .01). For eachquestion category, th e main pa t t e rn of r e su l t sgiving the means by phase for combined ex-perimental subjects is presented in Figure 1,and the implicit and explici t group means areseparate ly presented elsewhere (sec FootnoteS).Comparisons between Treatments

In order to f u r t he r explicate th e effects ofobserving a model display one question class(e.g., nominal physical) upon production ofthe other question categories (e.g., va lue jud g-ments), the four experimental and the controlgroups (combining implici t a nd explici t var ia-tions) were scored for all question classesstudied. For each que stion class, overal l an aly-ses of variance were first performed on thefive groups thus composed for the changesfrom base line to imitation, and from base lineto general izat ion phases. Next, the in te rphasechanges in the quest ion formulat ions of eachgroup were compared wi th those of each othergroup by a series of I tests; in eva lua t i ng thesete for descriptive purposes, the .01 level wasadopted fo r significance.Genera l ly , these analyses revealed that onlythe group exposed to a re levant model in-creased it s production of the given questioncategory; both f rom base l ine to im itat ion, an dto generalization, for every question class theoverall analyses of these changes proved highlysignificant (smallest F = 14.31, df =4/135,p < .001). Fur thermore , the group exposed tomodeling of the re levant quest ion category inevery comparison significantly surpassed eachother group's production of the given questionclass in all interphase changes (smallest t= 4.19, df = 54 , p < .001).


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I N D U C E D C H A N G E S IN CHILDREN'S I N T E R R O G A T I V E C L A S S E S1 0

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N O M I N A L - P H Y S I C A L F U N C T I O N A L U S E SC A U S A L R E L A T I O N SV A L U E J U D G M E N T S

B A S E L I N EP H A S E

I M I T A T I O NP H A S E

G E N E R A L I Z A T I O NP H A S E

F I G . 1 . Phase m e a n s for ques t ion categories (combining imp l ic i t and explicit in -s t ruc t iona l t r e a t m en t s ) , presented fo r with in-var i a l ion groups .

With a cons tan t , number of trials, it wouldbe expected that a group's effective adoptionof the question class it observed would neces-sarily reduce i ts production of the alternativequestion classes studied. Such a pattern wasevident throughout, and as a consequence, th econtrol group (which, for all question cate-gories, showed little change across phases) ex-ceeded the nonre levant modeling groups innumbers of instances. Fo r example, on func-t ional uses questions, the causal relations andva lue judgments experimental groups declined

from base l ine to im i t a t ion , an d f rom base lineto generalization, to levels significantly belowthose of the controls (smallest i = 2.67, p< .01), whereas the relevant, f u n c t io n a l usesmodeling group far surpassed the controls inboth in terphase comparisons (smaller < = 4.64,[ > < .001).In no case did observing the model producegiven questions covary positively with a dif-fe ren t , nonmodeled question class to createsignificant divergence between irrelevant model-in g groups; of 24 such comparisons (across


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686 T. L. ROSENTHAL , B. J. Z IMMERMAN , AND K. BURNINGboth interphase changes), none approached the.01 level, and the largest t obtained barelyreached the value necessary for the orthodoxa = .05 level (t = 2.17, p > .01).

It should be mentioned that th e severalgroups in general displayed q u i t e comparablebase-l ine means for all question classes. In noins tance did any two groups differ signif icantly ,nor did any experimental gr oup t e nd to surpassany other group in base-line production of thequestion class it subsequently observed; thelargest of svich differences involved the valuejudgments modeling group, whose base-lineproduction of nominal physical questionst e n d ed to exceed that of both th e relevant,nominal physical modeling group (t = 2.37)and of the control group (t = 2.42). In essence,then, observing the model produce a particularquest ion class did not appear to e n h a n c e byt r a ns f e r the production of any other of thequestion classes studied."Mimicry (Exact, Imitation)

\'or theoretical reasons discussed below, itis important to consider th e amount of exactcopying, or mimicry, of the model's questionsdur ing the imitation phase. For the presentanalyses, the frequency of exact imitation hasbeen combined across experimental variations;the significance tests reported involved com-parison of equal numbers of implicit andexplicit treatment subjects within each exper i -mental variation, and consequently, dif ferencesin the criteria of imitation across th e fourex pe r imen t s are equated between th e com-bined implicit and explicit groups. The m e a nf r equ en cy o f exact imitation equaled 1.41 forall experimental subjects combined, that is,11.75% of responses to the 12 stimuli pre-sented. Fully 70.5% of 112 ex pe r imen ta l sub-j ec ts never produced a single copying re -sponse; thus, only 29.5% of the chi ld ren ac-counted fo t all mimicry observed. Furthermore,of 158 such copying responses (f rom a total of1,344 responses), only 41 (25.9%) were madeby children in the implicit instruction treat-men t s . The r e m a i n i n g 74.1% of mimicry

6 For a one-page table giving the base-line means andinterphase changes of each group scored fo r all questionclasses, order NAPS Document No. 01186, remitting$5.00 fo r photocopies or $2.00 fo r microfiche. Se eFootnote 3 for o r d e ri n g i n fo r m a t i o n .

responses were produced by the explicit treat-ments, whose subjects had been instructed to"Try as hard as you can to make y o u r ques-tions like the lady's questions." When meanmimicry for the implicit treatment group(M = .73) was compared with that for theexplicit group (M ~ 2.99), the results stronglyconfirmed that the explicit instructions, ratherthan sheer observation of the model , hadplayed a dominant role in eliciting mimicry(F = 21.34, d f = 1/110, p < .0001). The sameconclusion resulted when th e proportion of im-plicit subjects (.196) who had displayed mim-icry was compared with that of explicit sub-j ec t s (.393) who had mimicked (CR = 2.29,p ~ .02). Consequently, it seems implausiblethat the m a j o r findings resulted f rom slavishcopying of the model's words; instead, i lappeared clear that th e children were ableto discriminate, an d general ize , th e c r i t e r i agoverning the model's question classes.

DISCUSSIONThe results revealed clearly that childrenwere able to categorize stimuli in accord withth e f ou r alternative criteria displayed by the

model, a n d that these bases for in fo rmat ionseeking were generalized to new stimuli. Thelow f requency of exact mimicry of the model'squest ions , especially by the implicit i n s t r u c -t ions groups, suggested that children wereabs t rac t ing th e categorical properties of thequest ion classes, and were not merely copyingthe model's utterances. In this regard , it isi n t e r e s t i ng that Rosen thai and Whitebook(1970) also f o u n d that strong directions toem ula t e the model increased children's copyingof word content, relative to a nondirectiveprocedure, but the divergent instructionalgroups did not differ in their adoption of them o r e abstract (tense of verb an d kernelsentence pattern) aspects of the model's para-digm. Furthermore, only in one of the f ou rpresent studies (that involving nominal physi-cal questions) did explicit directions to emulatethe model surpass implicit instructional pro-cedures. The data demonstrated that induction(from diverse instances) of abstract criteriagovern ing information seeking represents an -other example of complex, rule-governed be -havior readily subject to vicarious modif ica-


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INDUCED CHANGES IN CHILDREN'S INTERROGATIVE CLASSES 68 7t ion. Al though the question classes studieddiffered marked ly in their base-l ine f requenc ies ,signif icant imitative changes were obtained ineach experiment. It appeared noteworthy thatthese results were generated by a sample ofyoungsters economical ly di sadvantaged an dfrom homes in which Span i sh was, predomi -nan t l y , the first l anguage learned.

Psycholinguists have tended to confine theconcept of imi ta t ion to l i teral mi mi c r y ofth e model 's responses (e.g., Chomsky, 1964;Slobin, 1968). This usage of "imitation"constricts the relevance of social learningcon t r ibu t ions to the study of ru le-governedbehavior (Rosenthal & Whi t ebook , 1970.)In the domain of abst rac t ion and categor iza-tion skills, Piaget and his students haveexercised a d o mi n a n t i n f luence . It is difficultto isolate a def ini t ive s t a t e m e n t of Piaget ' sview of imi ta t ion. However , th e impressionis created that he, too, considers imitativelearn ing to involve sheer "reproduct ion ,""mimicking ," or an exac t "copy" of themodel 's behavior (e.g. , Piaget , 1951, pp. 50-51, 1952, p. 375), and hence to be incapableof t ransmi t t ing the cognitive organizationswhich h e t e r ms "schemata." Al though con-f i rming by repl icat ion B a n d u r a a n d McDonald 's(1963) results, current workers in the Piagettradition (Cowan et al., 1969) have alsoques t ioned w h e t h e r a soc ia l l earn ing posi t ioncan encompass complexly organized behav ior .

B a n d u r a (1969b) has noted these apparentmisunderstandings of the conceptual status ofim i t a t ion w i th in contemporary soc ia l l earn ingtheory, and has elsewhere (1969a, 1969c) dis-cussed in detai l the t e chn i ca l i n fo rmat ion-processing considerations pertaining to a sociall ea rn ing posi t ion. In no sense does this view-poin t conf ine th e study of imi t a t ive behav io rto nar rowly molecu l a r i n s t ances in which anobserver mimics , or slavishly copies, th e exacttopography of a model's responses. It is tobe hoped that the present studies, and othersocial l earn ing research on ru le-governed be-havior , will help to dispel such an overlyl im i t ed view of imitat ive processes.

Skinner (1953) has discussed thought as aref inement of discrim ination and generaliza-tion responses. Although the present researchdid not bear on th e de nouveau development

of cognit ive structures, th e resul ts indicatedthat social l e a rn ing procedures were effect ivein l eading ch i ldren to discr im inate the abst rac tcategorizations displayed by the model, andto generalize these classifications to a new setof st imul i . I t ma y be conjec ture d tha t wha t-ever factors promote a chi ld's disposi t ion toorganize even ts (e.g., func tional ly, causal ly, orvaluationally) will exert influence upon en dur-ing habi ts of organ i za t i on wh ich he willexhibi t . Am ong such f ac to rs , i t appe ars plausi -ble that th e typical organizat ional sets of thepersons important in his environment, suchas paren t s and peers, will qual i fy h is organiz-in g behavior in di r ec t i ons not necessa r i ly con-g r u en t wi th hypo the t i ca l ma tu ra t i ona l se -quences of cognitive development (e.g., Piaget,1959, pp. 218-219). In t h i s connec t ion , thepresen t e xpe r im en t s suggest t ha t at least tosome degree , th e organizat ion of abstractionskills is amenable to change through observa-t iona l learn ing .

REFERENCESB A L D W I N , A. L. Theories of child development. NewYork: W iley, 1968.B A N D U R A , A. Principles oj behavior modification. New-York : Holt, Rinehart & Winston , 1969. (a)B A N D U R A , A. Social learning of m o r a l j udgmen t s .Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1969,11 , 275-279. (b)B A N D U R A , A. Social- learning theory of ident i f i ca toryprocesses. In D. A. Goslin (Ed.), Handbook ofsocialization tlieory and research. Chicago: RandMcNally , 1969. (c)B A N D U R A , A., & HAERIR, M. B. Modification ofsyn t ac t i c style. Journal oj Experimental Child Psy-chology, 1966, 4, 341-352.B A N D U K A , A., & MCDONALD, F. J. Influence of social

r e inforcement and th e behavior of models in shapingchi ldrens' m o r a l j u d g m e n t s .Journal of Abnormal an dSocial Psychology, 1963, 67 , 274-281.C A R R O L L , W. R., R O S E N T H A L , T. L. , & B R Y S H , C.Socially induce d imitation of gramm atica l s truc tures .P a p e r pre s en ted at the m e e t i n g of the Society forResearch in Child D eve lo pm en t , Santa Monica ,March 1969.C H O M S K Y , N. Form al d iscuss ion. In U. Bel lug i & R. W.Brown (Eds.), Th e acquisition of language. Mono-graphs of the Society for Research in Child Development,1964,29(1 , No. 92), 35-39.COWAN, P . A., LANGER, J., HEAVENRICH, J., & NATHAN-

S O N , M . Social l earning and Piaget 's cognit ive theoryof mora l deve lopment . Journal of Personality andSocial Psychology, 1969, 11 , 261-274.KIRK, R. E. Experimental design: Procedures for thebehavioral sciences. Belmont , Calif.: Brooks/Cole,1968.


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688 T. L. ROSENTHAL, B. J. Zl MMKRMA N, ANDK. DuRNINGO D O M , R. D., LIEBERT, R. M., & HILL, J. H. The versus ins t ruct ions in transmitting grammatical pa-effects of m odel ing cues , r eward, and aUcn l iona l se t ra rneter s wi th exper imenter as model . Behaviouron the product ion of g r a m m a t i ca l and ung r a r a m a t i ca l Research an d Therapy, 1970, 8 , 189-196.syntactic constructions. Journal o f Experimental Child SKINNER, B. F. Science an d human behavior. N f c w Y o r k :Psychology, 1968, 6, 13H40. Macmillan, 1953.P I A G E T , J. I'lay, dreams, and imitat ion in childhood. SLOBIN, D. I. Imi t a t ion and g ram m at ica l developmentNew York: Nor ton , 1951. ;n chi ldren . In N. S. E ndle r , L. R. Boul t er , & H.PIAGF.T, J. The origins o f intelligence in children. New Qsser (Eds.), Contemporary i ssues in developmentalYo r k : International Universities Press, 1952. psychology. New Y o r k : Holt, Rinehart & Wins ton ,P I A G E T , J. The language and thought of th e child. (3rd ed .) 1968.L o n d o n : Rout lcdgc & Regan-Paul, 1959.R O S K N T I I A I . , 'P . I,., & W I I I T K U O O K , J. S. Incentives (Received June 3, 1969)

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Bir th O r d e r an d Mother -Chi ld In t eract ion in an Achievem en t S i tua t i on : M a r y K .. Rothbart*: D epa r t m en t , ofPsycho logy , Univers i ty of Oregon , Eugen e, Oregon 97403.Kffects of Set on the "Effects of Mere Exposure": Peter Suedfeld,* Yakov M . Epstein, Elana Buchanan, andP. Bruce Landon: D epa r t m en t of Psychology, RutgersThe State University, University College, NewJersey f la i l , N ew Bru nsw ick , New Jersey 08903.Constants across Cultures in the Face and in E m o t i o n : Pau l Ekm an* and Wal lace V. Er iesen : Studies in Non-verbal Behavior, 1405 Fourth Avenue, San Francisco, California 94122.Self-Disclosure and the Volunteer: A Source of Bias in Laboratory Experiments: Thomas C. Hood* and Kurt W.B a ck : Department of Sociology , Un ivers i ty of Tennessee, Knoxvil le, Tennessee 37916.Helping a Person in Dist ress : The In f luence of Implici t an d Expl ic i t "Rules" of C o n d u c t on Chi ldren and Adu l t s :Ervin Staub*: Department of Social Relations, Harvard University, William James Hall, Cambridge, Massa-chusetts 02138.Sta tus and React ions to Threa t s ; Thomas Falcy a nd Ja m es T . Tedeschi*: De par tm en t o f Psycho logy , Sta t eUnivers i ty of New York at Alba ny , 1400 W a s h ing to n A venue , Alba ny , New York 12203.Authoritarianism and Attitudes toward the Vietnam War as Reflected in Behaviorial and Self-Report Measures:Richard R. Izzelt*: Department of Psychology, State University College, Oswego, New York 13126.The Sex Var iable in C o n f o r m in g Behav i o r : Frank Sis t runck* an d John W . M c D a v i d : C o o r d ina t o r for SocialSciences, State Univer s i ty System of Florida, Tallahassee, Florida 32304.Aggression as a Funct ion of Magni tude of Victim's Pain Cues, Level of P rior Anger Arousal , an d Aggressor-VictimSimilar i ty: Robert A. Baron*: Depar tment , of Psychology, Univers i ty of South Carolina, Columbia, SouthCarolina 29208.Chea t ing as a Func t io n of the L a be l i ng of N a t u r a l Arousa l : Richard A. Dienstbicr* and Pa m ela Os bo r ne : Depart-ment o f Psycho logy , 1131 Oldfather Hall, Un ivers i ty of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508.Attent ion Deployment and Nonverbal Fluency: Kathleen Dewing* and Gregory Battye: Department of Psy-chology, Unive r s i t y of Western Aus t ra l ia , Nedlands , Wes tern Aus t ra l ia .Repet i t ion and Order Effects in Att i tude Format ion: Doug las K Chalmers* : School for Social Sciences , Unive rs i ty

of California, Irvine, California 92664.Effects of Aggressiveness Habit Strength on Behavior in the Presence of Agression-Related Stimuli: Russell G.Geen* and David Stonncr : D e p a r t m e n t of P s y c h o l o g y , 20 9 McAlcs ter Hal l , Univers i ty of Missour i , Co lumbia ,Missouri 65201.Oppor tun i ty fo r In fo rmat ion Search and the Effects of False Heart-Rate Feedback: John C. Barefoot* and RonaldB. Straub: Department of Psychology, Carleton Univers i ty , Ottawa 1, Canada.Sociopathy and Ser ia l Learn ing of CVC C o m bina t io n s w i t h H ig h and Low Socia l Conten t Ra t ings : Pa t r ic ia B.Slutker ,* Sandra H. Gil, and Louis W . Stutker: D e p a r t m e n t of Psychia t ry and Neu r o lo g y , Tulane Unive r s i t y ,1430 Tuland A v e n u e , New Orlea ns , Louisiana 70112.Assessment of Subjects' Suspicions: Zick Rubin* and James C. Moore, Jr.: D epa r t m en t of Social Relations,Harvard Univers i ty , 460 Will iam James Hal l , Cambr idge , Massachuset ts 02138.On th e Reso lu t ion an d Tolerance of Cognit ive Inconsis tency in a Na t u r a l Occu r r i ng E ven t : At t i t udes an d Beliefsfollowing th e Senator Edward M . K e n n e d y Incident: Irvvin Si lverman*: D e p a r t m e n t of Psycho logy , Uni-versity of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32601.The Fate of Arbi t ra ry Tradi tions in a Labo ra to ry M ic r o cu l t u r e : Kar l E . Weick* and David P . Gilf i l lan : Collegeo f Liberal Arts , Labora tory fo r Research in Social Rela tions , Univ ers i ty of Minneso ta , Minneapo l is , Minneso ta55455.

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