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THE HISTORY OF IMITATION IN LEARNING THEORY: THE LANGUAGE ACQUISITION PROCESS
Author(s) -
Kymissis Effie,
Poulson Claire L.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of the experimental analysis of behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1938-3711
pISSN - 0022-5002
DOI - 10.1901/jeab.1990.54-113
Subject(s) - imitation , connectionism , cognitive imitation , cognitive science , psychology , language acquisition , learning theory , cognitive psychology , operant conditioning , cognition , reinforcement , social psychology , neuroscience , mathematics education
The concept of imitation has undergone different analyses in the hands of different learning theorists throughout the history of psychology. From Thorndike's connectionism to Pavlov's classical conditioning, Hull's monistic theory, Mowrer's two‐factor theory, and Skinner's operant theory, there have been several divergent accounts of the conditions that produce imitation and the conditions under which imitation itself may facilitate language acquisition. In tracing the roots of the concept of imitation in the history of learning theory, the authors conclude that generalized imitation, as defined and analyzed by operant learning theorists, is a sufficiently robust formulation of learned imitation to facilitate a behavior‐analytic account of first‐language acquisition.