Effects of televised modeling and active participation on rule-governed question production among native American preschool children

Preschool native-American children were randomly assigned to observation of TV modeling only, observation of TV modeling plus active participation, and control conditions to determine if providing an opportunity to perform behaviors displayed by televised models is more effective than observational learning alone in inducing preschool children's rule-governed production of causal questions. Performance of both experimental groups was significantly superior to controls at posttesting, but only the TV plus active participation group surpassed controls at retention testing. The TV modeling plus participation group asked significantly more causal questions than the TV modeling only group on posttest and retention trials. Implications are discussed for social learning theory and research for instructional programming for minority group children who are faced with the requirements of two cultures.