The Effect of Vicarious Reinforcement on Imitation in Two Social-Racial Groups

Discrimination Theory of Rule‐governed Behavior

“…A number of experiments have shown that imitation may be occasioned by observing social reinforcers produced by modeled behavior (Bandura, 1965;Deguchi, 1984;Ollendick, Dailey, & Shapiro, 1983;Thelen & Rennie, 1972), suggesting that compliance with instructions may be occasioned by observing reinforced compliance. For the observer, an instance of reinforced compliance contains an instruction, compliance, its consequences, and perhaps an agent.…”

Observational Learning from a Radical-Behavioristic Viewpoint

“…As a result ofthis, the social-learning approach has not paid much attention to histories (e.g., Bandura, 1977aBandura, , 1977b (Baer, 1982a(Baer, , 1983 (Skinner, 1953, p. 282). Note, however, that verbal reports are not dependable as a measure of "efficacy expectation" (e.g., Bandura, 1977a) Kazdin, 1973;01-lendick, Shapiro, & Barrett, 1982;Thelen & Rennie, 1972). Bandura (1971b) (1977, 1983a) becomes an important case.…”

Vicarious reinforcement is a result of earlier learning

“…Miller and Dollard (1941) were the first to propose that imitative behaviors are learned and maintained by reinforcement. Although Guillaume (1926/76) (Gewirtz & Stingle, 1968;Thelen & Rennie, 1972;Uzgiris, 1984 Thorpe's definition of imitation has been misinterpreted to mean that only instances of novel behaviors are evidence of "true imitation" (Hinde, 1970, pg 583;Wyrwicka, 1988). However, Thorpe (1963) defined imitation in the context of distinguishing it from social facilitation (a distinction that will be discussed below).…”

“…For example, Bandura's social-learning theory includes the terms "vicarious reinforcement", "vicarious punishment", "vicarious extinction", "vicarious arousal", "implicit reward", "vicarious classical conditioning", and "observational learning" (Bandura, 1969(Bandura, , 1971(Bandura, , 1977. Other associated terms are "vicarious instigation", identification, "vicarious learning", imitation, modeling, social facilitation, local enhancement and imitative learning (Bandura, 1971;Berger, 1962;Dubner, 1973;Gewirtz, 1971b;Green & Osborne, 1985;Hinde, 1970;Sharpley, 1985;Thelen & Rennie, 1972;Thorpe, 1963).…”