Replicated a New York City study of completed suicides by persons 19 years old or younger, in metropolitan districts of Ohio, Texas and California, following broadcast of four fictional television films on suicide. Found the impact of movies varied by metropolitan area. Analyzed geographic differences in suicide response, emphasizing that…

The study compared the effectiveness of a peer model and an adult model in teaching an expressive language task to four autistic boys (ages 7-10). Results indicated that all children learned from both models and few consistent differences occurred across the two conditions. Generalization and maintenance was also consistently high in both…

Experiment One results indicated that reciprocal imitation is not necessarily reciprocal, but is generalizable. Experiment Two showed that subsequent imitation effects, whether from observing others imitate or from being the target of the imitation, result from a process of imitation of imitativeness. (Author/RC)

Some determinants of affectionate behavior in young children were explored. Experiment 1 demonstrated that children who imitated a male model who was nurturant were nurturant. Experiment 2 demonstrated that mere participation without imitation of nurturance and imitation of neutral physical contact was not effective in inducing affectionate…

Investigated the effects of peer reinforcement and various clinician reinforcement schedules on the imitation accuracy of language-delayed children in small treatment groups. (SJL)

To help strengthen their students' self-esteem and increase their chances for success, teachers must assume an attitude of 100 percent responsibility, focus on the positive, monitor their own self-talk, use classroom support groups, identify personal strengths and resources, set goals and objectives, use guided visualization, take action, and…

Four preschool children with autism played "Follow-the-Leader," in which a normal peer demonstrated and physically prompted a variety of actions and object manipulations that defined the activity. Following training, all four subjects generalized their imitative skill to a new setting involving new actions and object manipulations. (Author/JDD)

Describes research on young children's long-term memory under 2 conditions of acquisition: direct imitation followed by a 10-minute delay, or deferred imitation. Children were able to encode and retain as much from visual pickup of modeled acts as from feedback obtained through imitation. (Author/GH)

Comparison of 32 children (ages 5-7) with specific language impairments (SLI) and normally developing children matched for either age or language development found that the SLI children, unlike either control group, performed significantly better for morpheme production tasks in an imitation instruction condition than in a modeling condition.…

Experimenter modeled affectionate physical contact in group of preschool children who imitated the behavior. This induced significant increase of affectionate behavior during free-play period. A group which imitated "neutral" physical contact and another that had imitated "warm" verbal contact did not show significant increase in affectionate…

Examines the nature of the cognitive coding processes operating both during and following exposure to modeled behavior and the contributions of these processes to recall of the behavior in four- and seven-year-old children. (Author/MP)

Examines school personnel smokers' reports on how they would feel if a no-smoking ban was instituted on school premises. Results show that the 59 respondents from 14 schools were interested in quitting smoking, but did not favor a policy prohibiting smoking on campus. Discusses smoking influences on students and other issues. (RJM)

Two alternative instruction conditions (modeling and imitation) were used to teach a novel morpheme, embodied in a visual symbol system, to 21 children (ages 5-6) with specific language impairment (SLI) and 2 peer groups. Results indicated that imitation practice afforded assistance to children with SLI and their age-matched peers in morpheme…

In one condition, infants were presented with tongue protrusions and mouth openings modeled by an adult. In another condition, these gestures were simulated by objects. Infants in the first condition reproduced the gestures at significant levels, but infants in the second condition did not. Findings indicate that imitation is a social response.…