Repeating a joke to your coworkers that you heard told by a late night host the previous day violates the operant imitation account of imitation in all of the following ways except:
A) The imitative response is novel
B) The reinforcement for the response appears to be missing
C) The context in which the response occurs is different
D) The observed behavior happened hours before the imitative response

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The operant imitation account of imitation suggests that imitation occurs because it has been previously reinforced in similar contexts. The context in which the response occurs (e.g., telling a joke among coworkers) does not necessarily violate this account, as the context for imitation does not need to be identical, just similar enough that the behavior is reinforced.

Repeating a Joke to Your Coworkers That You Heard Told