Over the past half century the mass media, including video games, have become important socializers of children. Observational learning theory has evolved into social-cognitive information processing models that explain that what a child observes in any venue has both short-term and long-term influences on the child's behaviors and cognitions. C.…

Observational learning requires exposure to modeling cues, acquisition of the ability to reproduce what is seen or heard, and acceptance of the model's behavior as a guide for one's own actions, as imitation, counter-imitation, disinhibition, or inhibition. In this overview paper, the author considers a large body of research, especially that…

This study examined the effects of differentially characterizing a model as "good", "bad", or "neutral" on preschool children's subsequent evaluation and imitation of the model. The model's aggressive and motor behaviors were more frequently imitated than were his non-aggressive and verbal behaviors. Instructions influenced the Ss' evaluation of…

Since the publication of their seminal article entitled, "Transmission of Aggression Through Imitation of Aggressive Models" (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961), the work of Albert Bandura and his co-authors has had an immeasurable impact on the field of psychology, in general, and educational psychology, more specifically. The purpose of this report is…

The psychoanalytic theory of identification and the cognitive-developmental and social-learning theories of imitation are briefly described. Pertinent empirical research in the following areas is summarized and critically evaluated: imitation in infants, observational learning, clinical use of modeling, and the relation of imitation to aggression,…

Approximately 1,500 published and unpublished books and articles are listed in this bibliography on the broad area of observational learning in children which includes modeling, imitation, and vicarious conditioning. The majority of sources listed are dated from the 1960's and 1970's although some date as far back as the 1930's. Research in such…