ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the various types of behavioral effects which such observation has on respondent and operant behaviors of the observer. The major concern is with the operations which must be followed in order to produce a specified effect on the potential learner. A variety of terms are used by different writers to refer to this class of learning, including those of "imitation," "modeling," "learning through observation," "vicarious learning," "social learning," and "role-playing." The nature of the effect is dependent upon the positive or aversive consequences which are produced by the model's behavior. New responses, or new combinations of responses which are in the person's repertoire, may be acquired through observation of these behaviors in others. To the extent that modeling is a form of prompting, it is essential that the model or prompt be faded out in order that more natural components of the situation will serve the discriminative function of controlling the time and place of the behavior.
