The development of generalized imitation within topographically determined boundaries.
Generalized imitation can be taught, but it stays inside the topographical 'boxes' you train—so rotate across motor and vocal types early.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Garcia et al. (1971) worked with four preschoolers who had intellectual disability. None of the kids could imitate on command.
The team used prompting and fading to teach motor acts like clapping and vocal acts like saying "ah." They ran a multiple-baseline across behaviors to see if the children would later copy new, untrained actions.
What they found
All four children learned the trained imitative responses. They also copied new actions, but only inside the group they had practiced.
Kids taught motor acts only copied novel motor acts. Kids taught vocal acts only copied novel vocal acts. Generalization stayed inside the topographical 'box.'
How this fits with other research
Haring (1985) later saw the same boundary effect with toy play. After teaching play actions within one toy set, kids generalized to new toys in that set but not to toys that worked differently.
Watson et al. (2007) used video modeling with children with autism and found the same fence: generalization of play only jumped to toys that looked similar to the trained ones.
Wilson et al. (2017) extended the idea to matrix training. Children recombined play actions, but only within the trained matrix grid. The pattern is clear: generalization respects the class you train.
Why it matters
If you want broad imitation, rotate early and often across motor, vocal, and object classes. Pick targets from each box in the same week so the boundaries blur. Monday morning, pick one motor and one vocal target and intermix trials. Your learner gets wider generalization for free.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
A multiple baseline technique was employed to examine the experimental development of an imitative repertoire within preselected topographical boundaries. Four severely retarded children, initially nonimitative, were individually trained to imitate a number of motor and vocal responses by shaping and fading procedures. Other untrained responses (probes) were demonstrated to the subjects systematically throughout the ongoing training. Training responses were divided into three topographical types: small motor, large motor, and short vocal responses. Probe responses were divided into four topographical types: small motor, large motor, short vocal, and long vocal responses. Following a multiple baseline format, sequential training of the first three types was begun at different temporal periods of the study; unreinforced imitative generalization was continually measured by the probes. Generalized imitation was observed in each subject (untrained responses were imitated even though unreinforced); but this generalization was restricted to the topographical type of imitation currently receiving training or having previously received training.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1971 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1971.4-101