A Jumping Box for Cats

Forty-eight 4- to 6-year-old children were randomly assigned to one of three maternal modeling treatment groups: MC–mother exhibits tactual curiosity with the experimental stimuli; MNC–mother stares ahead and exhibits no tactual curiosity with the stimuli; and C–mother interacts with another adult and exhibits no tactual curiosity with the stimuli. Results revealed that imitative tactual curiosity occurred significantly more frequently among MC children, particularly the boys. Further, nonimitative curiosity (other tactual encounters with the stimuli) occurred significantly less frequently among C children, particularly the girls. Interpretation of these and other findings emphasized the potential problem of familiar models exhibiting atypical behaviors and the assumption that girls would more readily detect such atypicality in their mother's behavior than would boys.