ABSTRACT
This chapter describes correspondence relations—specifically, imitation and rule-governed behavior. Spontaneous imitation occurs in several species, including human infants, but the evidence is still controversial. The discovery of mirror neurons suggests that early imitation in infants and other primates is based on neural mechanisms related to our evolutionary history, though the evidence is still equivocal. We propose that operant imitation, generalized imitation, and complex observational learning build on a basic capacity for imitation. Observational learning integrates imitation with rule-following behavior to produce behavior that is transmitted from one person to another and from one generation to the next. Rule-governed behavior refers to the effects of instructions and other rules (verbal stimuli) of the speaker that regulate the behavior of the listener. Rules play a large and important role in the regulation of human behavior, not as mental events but as verbal descriptions of the contingencies. Rule-following behavior is maintained by social and collateral contingencies. One way to understand rule-governed behavior is based on joint control where two verbal stimuli combine to control a common form of verbal response.
