Examines second graders' and sixth graders' observational learning of complex problem solving strategies. (BD)

Preschoolers and second graders observed a model choose his "favorites" in a series of common object trios and were then asked to recall the model's choices. Results indicated that children's level of attention influences their level of learning in an observational setting. (ST)

Three experiments were conducted with elementary school students which investigated whether modelling of unreinforced behavior influenced children to perform that behavior. Results indicated that the unreinforced behavior of the model serves both as a source of information and as a cue for unreinforced imitation. (DP)

Degree of organization in presenting stimuli, and training through modeling versus guided practice, were studied on a dial-reading concept using 144 third or fifth graders. (ST)

Forty-eight white elementary school students, ages 6 to 10, received experimental treatments consisting of modeling and social reinforcement contingencies designed to influence their racial preferences. Social reinforcement significantly increased the modification of racial preferences during the treatments; modeling had a sustaining influence on…

Performance of seven- and nine-year old children in a balance task was found to be similar when no demonstration was provided while initial demonstration improved the performance of both groups. Demonstration at an intermediate point in the task facilitated the nine-year-olds' performance but was detrimental to the performance of the younger…

Examines the nature of the cognitive coding processes operating both during and following exposure to modeled behavior and the contributions of these processes to recall of the behavior in four- and seven-year-old children. (Author/MP)

Results lend support to the notion that children at different ages are differentially responsive to various conceptual-strategy models. (Author)

This report reviews evidence concerned with age-related aspects of social perception processes and their effects on overt behavior. Focus is on the variability among children in comprehension and evaluation of action, motives, and consequences of modeled behavior. Findings indicated that comprehension of acts in terms of motives and correctness of…

Assessed the authenticity of conservation attainment through an observational learning paradigm. First grade children (N=60) were exposed to either a peer or adult model who was either present or absent during a series of tasks. No correlation was found between social influence and observational acquisition of conservation. (Author/JAC)

Children's self-control behavior in motor and cognitive tasks was examined in a series of two studies in which modeling and self-regulatory mechanisms were varied to assess the influence of each. In the first study, 6-, 7-, 9-, and 11-year-old children individually played a 20-trial game of 'Simon Says' (involving activation and inhibition trials)…

This study was designed to investigate the effects of modeling or training with and without rule provision on the employment of strategies in solving four-dimensional, discrimination-learning problems. Subjects were 144 second and sixth-grade children from the New York City Public Schools. The blank-trial hypothesis testing paradigm was used. The…

This paper describes seven interrelated studies concerned with children's understanding of sequential actions and with the effects of observing a model on this understanding. A total of 546 elementary and secondary school students served as subjects for the studies. The tasks for all of the studies involved deriving the pattern for a sequence from…