title: Comparison of nonretarded and mentally retarded children on tasks involving direct and rule-governed imitation.
abstract: The influence of intellectual level and social reinforcement on imitation learning was examined. Tasks involving direct and rule-governed imitation of a mode were presented to 20 mentally retarded and 20 nonretarded children. The children within each group were randomly assigned to either an affective ("good-fine") or an informative ("correct-right") social reinforcement condition. Reinforcement, administered on a fixed ration (FR4) schedule, was contingent on the child's imitative behavior. A multivariate analysis of variance showed that both the Population X Reinforcement Type interaction and the Reinforcement main effect were significant. Univariate follow-up tests showed that only rule-governed imitation contributed significantly to the multivariate effects. Analysis of simple effects indicated that retarded children performed optimally under affective reinforcement, while the nonretarded children performed highest under informative reinforcement.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000339:Affect; D002648:Child; D004495:Education of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities; D005246:Feedback; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D007360:Intelligence; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D012056:Reinforcement, Social; D012718:Set, Psychology