Effects of Manipulating Objects in Modeling Films on Selection of Imitative Response Class

Abstract

40 black boys in kindergarten individually observed one of four films: a model, (1) swinging a baseball bat, (2) pantomime swinging, (3) swinging a nonbat-like stick or (4) exercising (an activity-control film). Each child then entered a standard playroom and was observed for 10 min. The room contained three bat-like objects, two nonbat-like but swingable objects, and a pail-and-shovel. Contact time with each object and number of swings were recorded. The results indicated that those children who saw a bat being swung displayed frequent swings with the bat objects. Children who observed pantomime swinging did swing sooner but not more often than control children. Children who observed the nonbat-object being swung imitated the modeled response class but not with the object used by the model. Rather, these young black boys imitated using culturally familiar objects. The advantages of using several available objects within imitative testing environments and using multiple dependent measures, e.g., frequency, latency, etc., were discussed.