This paper describes two experiments designed to determine whether traditional effects of adult nurturance on children's incidental imitation could be obtained using a within-subject design and a functional (rather than operational) definition of nurturance. Four preschool children served as subjects, with four others serving as cross-sex companions. The companion child was never involved in any experimental manipulations but was included to reduce situational demand characteristics. Two male undergraduates established histories of nurturant or nonnurturant interactions with the subject children. Each child was asked to choose which of the two adult males he or she wanted to work with, to sort colored tokens into a box, and to draw something with one of four colored crayons after observing the two adult males drawing with the crayons. Results showed that the positive (nurturant) adults were consistently able to develop and maintain higher response rates on the sorting task than the neutral (nonnurturant) adults and that their nurturance was reciprocated by social preference. However, clear incidental imitation of the adult's crayon choices was shown by only one child, while picture content imitation was even more weakly displayed. (JMB)