An Experimental Analysis of Verbal Imitation in Preschool Children1

A model presented English words to three preschool children and reinforced accurate imitation of these words. The model also presented novel Russian words but the subjects' imitation of these words was never reinforced. As long as the subjects' imitation of English words was reinforced, their accuracy of imitating non-reinforced Russian words increased. When reinforcement was not contingent upon imitation of English words, accuracy of imitating both the English and the Russian words decreased. These results support and extend previous work on imitation.