Being imitated by an adult and the subsequent imitative behavior of retarded children

Institutionalized retarded subjects (N=57) were assigned to one of three experimental conditions during a simple three-choice task in which the subjects and the experimenter took turns feeding colored plastic "Cookie Monster." In the imitation condition, the experimenter imitated the subject's choice, and in the ninimtation condition, the experimenter avoided imitating the subject. Following imitation or nonimitation, the subject was given opportunities to imitate the experimenter. In the modeling only condition, the subject's choice always followed the experimenter's so that the subject always had the opportunity to imitate. Analysis of variance revealed a significant difference among the three conditions (p less than .008) in the subjects' tendency to imitate the experimenter. Paired comparisons between conditions showed that subjects in the imitation condition imitated significantly more (p less than .05) than subjects in either the nonimitation or modeling only condition. The nonimitation and modeling only conditions did not differ significantly. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings were discussed.