幼児の観察学習に及ぼす課題特性と代理強化の効果

Abstract

The effects of vicarious reinforcement (VR) and the characteristics of task on children's observational learning were examined. Two tasks involving a multiple-item list in which each item consisted of a pair of pictures were given to the subjects. In one-category condition, the model consistently chose the instances of either animal or food, while in two-category condition, the model chose exclusively the instances of animal and food. The model was either positively reinforced or not entirely reinforced. The observers were examined on their spontaneous imitative performance and the recall of their observation on models. Performance scores indicated that the observers in one-category condition were not influenced by VR; while those in two-category condition were enhanced by VR with their imitative responses. These results were discussed in terms of the hypothesis of the informational analysis.