In this study of imitation the modeling stimulus consists of the attributes of a model and the physical events produced by a model. The physical events include two components, the position of objects (static events) and the movement of objects (movement events). To investigate the effect of these components young children (N = 64) first observed one of four video tapes and then were given an opportunity to play with the materials seen on TV. The condition which presented a model and the condition which presented only the static and movement events produced similar amounts of imitation. Other results were that simple responses (reproduction of a single static event) required only the observation of static events; whereas complex responses (reproduction of two static events in the sequence presented by the modeling film) required the observation of static and movement events. The results suggest that a primary function of a model is the transmission of information about the environment. © 1969.
