ABSTRACT
This chapter provides some evidence that symbolic coding can enhance observational learning. The present experiment was specifically designed to elucidate the role of symbolic coding activities in learning through observation of modeled behavior. The modeling stimuli that subjects observed and later reproduced were motoric responses drawn from the manual language of the deaf. The immediate reproduction score for all groups combined was 69.36%, whereas subjects were able to perform only 35.33% of previously modeled behavior during the delayed test. Subjects who used Verbal Description achieved a higher level of observational learning than the Controls. The hypothesis that summary labeling would prove superior to the other coding systems also received qualified support. The relationships provide further suggestive evidence that subjects in the imaginal coding condition were engaging in imaginal activities and that these activities had a functional relationship to observational learning.
