Abstract
Summary One hundred thirty undergraduates (73 male and 57 female) participated in an experiment assessing the effects of vicarious reinforcement, as compared to direct reinforcement, on imitative behavior. Ss either viewed a model being reinforced (vicarious reinforcement) for certain behavior or were themselves reinforced if they imitated the model's behavior. Other treatments included the model or observer being reinforced in random sequence regardless of their behavior. The results indicated that vicarious reinforcement, when separated from status, competence, attractiveness, and prestige of the model, has little or no effect on matching behavior. Direct reinforcement accounted for all the variability in matching behavior between treatments. The results were interpreted by applying concepts from incentive-motivation theory.
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