Abstract
To follow what a model does or says with preschool children. Six preschool children were exposed to a model resolving a task while the model him/herself instructed the child other way with respect to how resolve the problem. Two tasks were selected, one in which an adult was who modeled and who instructed (Llaves), and the other in which a child was who modeled and who instructed (Figuras). During baseline, all children did as the model instead as they were instructed to do by the model, however, some variability appeared in three children when the model-instructer was the adult. Different experimental conditions (as extinction and response cost) were manipulated in order to change the imitative pattern of responding, but it was not changed until that two operations were implemented. One operation applied to five children was to prompt and reinforce directly the instructed response. The other was only applied to one child and consisted on discriminating the own behavior with regard the model's behavior. Results are discussed considering imitative and rules as instructional classes, enhancing the history of theses classes with regard to adults and other children, and with regard the reinforcing experimental history.
