Effects of model warmth on acquisition and performance of modeled behavior in chronic psychotics

Hypotheses derived from an earlier study were tested in experimental dyads with 32 adult chronic psychotic state hospital residents of both sexes. Patients either interacted with an adult model who was noncontingently warm and rewarding, or were not exposed initially to a model. In a second phase, the model displayed task responses and novel behaviors incidental to the task, and the patient's subsequent imitation of the model under minimal demand conditions was recorded. In a third phase, the model again displayed the same behaviors, whereupon half the patients in each group were subjected to moderate (explicit verbal request) or high (verbal request plus material rewards) incentives to imitate. Under strong incentive conditions, initial differences between groups on incidental imitation vanished, indicating that a previously positive relationship with a model facilitates imitative performance but not learning.