Erjavec Mihela, Horne Pauline J
School of Psychology, Bangor University, Brigantia Building, Penrallt Road, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2AS, United Kingdom.
J Exp Anal Behav. 2008 Mar;89(2):183-207. doi: 10.1901/jeab.2008.89-183.
Twenty children, ten 2-year-olds and ten 3-year-olds, participated in an AB procedure. In the baseline phase, each child was trained the same four matching relations to criterion under intermittent reinforcement. During the subsequent imitation test, the experimenter modeled a total of 20 target gestures (six trials each) interspersed with intermittently reinforced baseline trials. In each session, target gestures were selected in a pre-randomized sequence from: Set 1--ear touches; Set 2--shoulder touches; Set 3--midarm touches; and Set 4--wrist touches; subjects' responses to targets were not reinforced. In each target set, half the gestures featured in nursery matching games and were termed common targets whereas the remainder, which were topographically similar but did not feature in the games, served as uncommon targets. The children produced significantly more matching responses to common target models than to uncommon ones. Common responses were also produced as mismatches to uncommon target models more often than vice versa. Response accuracy did not improve over trials, suggesting that "parity" did not serve as a conditioned reinforcer. All children showed a strong bias for "mirroring"--responding in the same hemispace as the modeler. The 2-year-olds produced more matching errors than the 3-year-olds and most children showed a bias for responding with their right hands. The strong effects of training environment (nursery matching games) are consistent with a Skinnerian account, but not a cognitive goal theory account, of imitation in young children.
二十名儿童，十名2岁儿童和十名3岁儿童，参与了一项AB程序。在基线阶段，每个孩子在间歇强化的条件下被训练相同的四种匹配关系直至达到标准。在随后的模仿测试中，实验者总共示范了20个目标手势（每个手势进行6次试验），并穿插进行间歇强化的基线试验。在每个阶段，目标手势从以下几组中按照预先随机的顺序选择：第一组——触摸耳朵；第二组——触摸肩膀；第三组——触摸上臂中部；第四组——触摸手腕；对受试者针对目标的反应不给予强化。在每组目标中，一半的手势出现在幼儿园匹配游戏中，被称为常见目标，而其余的手势在地形上相似但未出现在游戏中，作为不常见目标。与不常见目标模型相比，孩子们对常见目标模型产生的匹配反应明显更多。与不常见目标模型的错配相比，常见目标模型的错配也更常引发常见反应。随着试验次数增加，反应准确性并未提高，这表明“一致性”并未作为条件强化物起作用。所有孩子都表现出强烈的“镜像”偏好——在与示范者相同的半侧空间做出反应。2岁儿童产生的匹配错误比3岁儿童更多，并且大多数孩子表现出用右手做出反应的偏好。训练环境（幼儿园匹配游戏）的强烈影响与斯金纳理论对幼儿模仿行为的解释一致，但与认知目标理论的解释不符。
