TO STUDY THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERING TEACHER REINFORCEMENT BEHAVIOR ON STUDENTS, 21 MIDDLE-CLASS AND 12 LOWER-CLASS MALE NINTH- AND 10TH-GRADE REMEDIAL READING STUDENTS WERE SHOWN TWO FILMS. THE FIRST DEPICTED A "POSITIVE" TEACHER WHO CONSISTENTLY REWARDED CORRECT RESPONSES WHILE NEGLECTING INCORRECT ONES, AND THE SECOND SHOWED A "NEGATIVE" TEACHER WHO CONSISTENTLY CRITICIZED INCORRECT RESPONSES WHILE IGNORING CORRECT ONES. EACH TEACHER DISPLAYED A SET OF DISTINCTIVE INCIDENTAL BEHAVIORS, (FOR EXAMPLE, "POSITIVE" TEACHER SAYING "THINK" AND POINTING TO HIS FOREHEAD, "NEGATIVE" TEACHER SAYING "LISTEN" AND CUPPING HER EAR) THE STUDENTS' IMITATION OF WHICH CONSTITUTED THE MAJOR DEPENDENT VARIABLE. AFTER VIEWING, THE BOYS WERE TAKEN SINGLY TO A ROOM, INFORMED THAT THEY WERE TO PLAY SCHOOL AND ASSUME THE ROLE OF TEACHER. THE EXPERIMENTER AND AN OBSERVER-RECORDER, WHO WAS AWARE OF THE HYPOTHESIS, WATCHED FROM AN ADJOINING ROOM EQUIPPED WITH ONE WAY MIRRORS AND AN INTERCOM. POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE IMITATIVE SCORES WERE DETERMINED FOR EACH BOY BY SUMMING UP THE NUMBER OF TIMES HE IMITATED THE POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE TEACHER. FINDINGS WERE--(1) MIDDLE-CLASS CHILDREN SHOWED SIGNIFICANTLY MORE IMITATION THAN DID DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN AND IMITATED THE POSITIVE TEACHER SIGNIFICANTLY MORE OFTEN, (2) THE MIDDLE-CLASS GROUP EXHIBITED A POSITIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A RATING OF STUDENT DEPENDENCY BY TEACHERS AND IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR, AND (3) PREFERENCE FOR A TEACHER WAS UNRELATED TO IMITATION OF A TEACHER. (AW)