Lecture 5- Sociocognitive development 2

Question 1

What are the 4 theories outline in this lecture?*** is it?

Answer 1

1. Social Cognition and Imitation
2. Social Learning theory
3. Infant imitation
4. Overimitation

Question 2

What is the behaviourist definition of learning?

Answer 2

Acquisition of knowledge/ skills through study, experience or being taught
- learning through associations and consequences - reinforcement and punishment

Question 3

What are responses elicted by and how do neeww patterns of behaviour arise?

Answer 3

Responses are elicited by environmental cues

- through shaping and successive approximations, new patterns of behaviour develop

Question 4

What are the limitations of behavioural approaches?

Answer 4

X - ignores motivation, thoughts and cognition
X - Based on animal research
X - Ignores social dimensions of learning
X - Treats organisms as passive
X - what about novel and complex behaviour that occurs without prior reinforcement?

Question 5

What is the ABC model of behaviourist theories?

Answer 5

Antecedent - specific environmental cue

Behaviour - Behavioural response

Consequence

Question 6

Outline Social Learning theory

Answer 6

LEARNING OCCUS THROUGH OBSERVING OTHERS

Question 7

What did Bandura (1961) outline about Social learning theory?

Answer 7

Wanted to explain how children learn in social environments

• We learn cognitively through imitation
• We change/ learn a new behaviour when exposed to an individual
• We modify this behaviour based on the application of consequences
  1. Imitation
  2. Modify behaviour based on consequences
• if we see it punished, we are less likely to imitate it
• Evolutionary basis - eating something then getting ill, wouldnt imitate it

Question 8

Outline the Bobo Doll experiments

Answer 8

• 3-5 year olds
  Group 1) Observer adult play agressively with doll
  Group 2) Observe non-agressive play (ignore bobo)
  Group 3) Control group - no observation
• adults actions were novel, so child would very unlikely have seen them before - e.g. sitting on him
• Also did verbal aggression

Observing agressive behaviour = imitate aggression (twice as likely)
More imitation in same-sex model conditions
- girls generally more verbally aggressive

Guns in the room, never touched by the model. More likely to go to them if seen aggressive model.

Expected aggressive models to reduce aggression as it would drain you of an aggressive drive

Models more successful if: attractive, high status, similar to observer

Question 9

What were Bandura’s conclusions?

Answer 9

Learn new behaviour by observation and imitation, without reinforcement or punishment

• challenges S-R argument of learning
• Emphasised cognition > reinfrocement, observation > experience, self > env

Stressed importance of role models

Question 10

Outline MIller & Dollard (1941)

Answer 10

Children imitate others because they are rewarded for doing so
Connecting behavioural and cognitive approaches to learning

Question 11

What did Bandura et al (1963) do?

Answer 11

Repeated it with a film of aggression

• found same results
• implications of what parents show their kids

Question 12

Outline Anderson & Bushman (2001)

- violent video games

Answer 12

Meta-analysis of studies into violent video games and aggressive behaviour

• Even brief exposure to violent tv/ movies can increase aggression
• Violent video games increases aggression, physiological arousal and negative thoughts/ feelings (not just feelings)

Question 13

Outline Bandura et al (1965) film rewards

- then giving a gift

Answer 13

Showed a video of aggression, but with 3 possible endings

1. Rewarded - more likely to be aggressive
2. Punished - less likely to be aggressive
3. No outcome

• Showed vicarious learning
• Watching someone else do it and see what happens to them

They then offered the children a gift if they modelled the behaviour

• every child then just did it anyway.
• shows that they all learned the behaviour, but just chose not to do it if the model got punished. Making decision dependent on outcome

Question 14

What are the 4 components of SLT?

Answer 14

1. Attention - have to notice and attend to behaviour
2. Retention - has to be remebered to replicate it (LTM)
3. Motor reproduction - must have physical capability to perform observed actions
4. Motivation - rewards/ punishments/ consequences

Question 15

Outline Banduras Social Cognitive theory (Bandura et al 1986)

Answer 15

SLT developed into SCT - emphasises humans self-control and ability to self-reflect. 3 components:

1. Behaviour (nature, frequency, intensity)
2. Person (Cognition, affect, biology)
3. Environment (social, physical, reinforcement)

Reciprocal determinism - these all interelate, and influence each other at all times

Question 16

Outline self-efficacy as part of SCT

Answer 16

This is what differs SLT and SCT - is self-efficacy

• level of confidence in their ability to successfully perform a behaviour
• impacts motivation and whether the behaviour will even be attempted

Efficacy expectations can be based on:
• Performance accomplishments - previous success
• Vicarious experience - observing others, if he is different to me, think im not tall enough for instance
•Verbal Persuasion/ encouragement from others to conviince you can do it
•Emotion
•Situations you are in

Question 17

What are the 4 things that SCT emphasises the importance of?

Answer 17

1. Importance of observation - learn though watching others
2. Importance of others - shape childrens behaviours
3. Importance of cognition - learning involves internal mental process
4. Importance of self - individual plays active role in social learning

Question 18

When does imitation come about? Like when does it develop by?

Answer 18

Piaget argued that children begin as asocial beings - cant make link between themselves and other people

• imitation emerged gradually and slowly
• No genuine imitation before 8-10 months
• Facial imitation is a landmark deevelopment - because they cant see it, shows advanced skills, too hard for those under 8 months
• Deferred imitation (18 months) - delay in making gesture - need a mental representation to understand, store and recreate gesture

Question 19

Outline Meltzoff & Moore (1977)

Answer 19

1. 6 infants ,12-21 days
   - imitated the observed gesture
   - 20 sec passive face after the gesture as a response slot
2. 12 infants 16-21
   - used dummy to delay imitation
   - Mouth opening and Tounge protrustion
   - when child is sucking a dummy, they didnt try and spit it out, they just waited then made the gesture when removed
   - could still do it even though visual stimuli had gone
   - Must have a mental representation - strong counter to Piaget who said this only happens at 18 months, not 16 days

Question 20

Outline counter findings to Piagets claims

Answer 20

• Studies found results in 42 minute old babies
• 6 week olds could do it a day after
• 6 month olds can do more complex sequences of action
• Suggests imitation is innate - can make the link between perception and production of human actions

Question 21

Outline Barr et al (1996) - bell and mitten

Answer 21

Puppet wearing a mitten, the mitten had a bell inside

• model would take the mitten and shake it thrice
• next day, infant was observed trying to do this

Question 22

What are the attempted explanations as to how infants can do this?

Answer 22

• A primitive body scheme - seeing gesture activates proprioceptive awareness of own face
• Ability to store information about others actions, own actions, and to compare the two - Actions observed, and actions carried out are compared and combined

Mirror neurons - motor cortex

Question 23

Outline the ‘like-me’ hypothesis Meltzoff (2007)

Answer 23

Humans are born with an ability to feel interpersonal connectedness - we want to feel similar to other people

• core of social cognition
• infants use the self to understand actions, goals, psychological states of others
• seeing others as like me allows infants to make inferences about mental experiences of others

Question 24

Outline Support for the like-me hypothesis

Answer 24

1. Brooks & Meltzoff (2002)
   - 14 mo infants prefer watching adults who are imitating them, then doing the opposite
2. Meltzoff & Brooks (2004) , Meltzoff (2007)
   - adult turns head with a blindfold on
   - 14- 18 mo wont look as they know the adult cant see
   - 12 mo will still look to see what they are looking at - but when given experience with blindfold they wont
   - when given a see through blindfold, 18 mo then looked because this changed their understanding
   - learning about others from own experiences

Question 25

Outline emotional eavesdropping (Repacholi & Meltzoff, 2007)

Answer 25

• learning emotions from each other
• infant observed an adult use a stick to make a nice noise, then given the stick and the infant tried to make the noise
• in another condition, another adult got really angry when the model pushed the stick
• the infant would then not press it if the angry model was present, especially if angry adult was looking at baby
• if angry adult was looking away, they more likely to do it

Question 26

Outline Gergely et al (2002) - rational imitation procedures

Answer 26

If an infant is observing the means to achieve a goal, they will imitate those exact means to achieve the goal

• Infants observed a model turning on a light with their head.
• COndition 1: the observer was cold, so hands were underneath a blanket, therefore, turned the light on with their head because it was rational
• Condtion 2: Hands were free and visible, put turned light on with head

Question 27

Outline Gergely et al (2002) - rational imitation findings

Answer 27

14 mo
In condition 1: 69% used their head - seemed quite rational to use their head if hands were unavailable

In condition 2: 79% did NOT use their head - as they didnt think it was the most rational way of completing the goal

• infants may only imitate a behaviour if it is the most rational method of achieving their goal ,if they can think of a better way of doing it, they will just do that

Question 28

Outline Meltzoff (1995) - Failed actions

Answer 28

• The task was to pull the end off a dumbell,
• In one condition, an adult model tried it, but couldnt do it
• Infants then tried to do it, even though others had failed as this is what they thought they were intending to do
• Next a machine then did it, but again failed, this time the infants didnt try it because they didnt attribute intention to an inanimate object

Question 29

Outline overimitation

Answer 29

• Children can imitate others, either selectively, and rationally
• but sometimes children imitate irrelevant actions - imitating everything, including completely irrelevant stuff

Question 30

Outline Horner & Whitten (2005) - Chimps, boxes

Answer 30

• Chimps and 3-4 year old children observed a tool based tax, to open a box
• the box was either opaque or clear
• The opaque box meant you couldnt see which actions were relevant to the progression of the task. Cant infer what is necessary and unnecessary behaviours
• The model used both necessary and unecessary behaviours
• Chimps were more likely to use irrelevant actions in opaque condition than transparent condition. They did exactly the most relevant steps in transparent box. But copied everything in opaque.
• But children copied all actions, even in transparent condition.

Question 31

What is the paradox with overimitation?

Answer 31

• If children can copy selectively (i.e. dont copy mistakes) and rationally - why do they overimitate and copy irrelevant actions
• 2 theories suggested to answer this:
  1. Instrumental explanations
  2. Social/ Normative explanations

Question 32

Outline Instrumental explanations as to why children overimitate

Answer 32

• Helps them understand about the function of objects/ world
• not sure which actions are necessary, think they all are
• Children need to learn an enormous range of information about loads of objects to slowly weed out irrelevant actions
• This tendency to copy everything is automatic, innate and unavoidable
• helps them learn

Question 33

Which instances do children selectively imitate?

Answer 33

• Copy intnetional but not accidental actions
• Copy reliable but not unreliable models
• Copy in-group over outgroup models
• Copy warm & friendly models over cold and aloof models

Question 34

Outline Social/ Normative explanations as to why children overimitate

Answer 34

• completely social process
• imitation serves a social function when children seek to ‘affirm a shared state’
• do it to understand about people around them
• imitate to be like their social partners - build rapport
• Imitative behaviour is shaped by:
  1. Social/ learning goals
  2. Identification with model/ social group
  3. Social pressures

Question 35

Outline Whitten et al (2016) - Zoo

Answer 35

• Undercover experimentor comes up and competes the task efficiently
• No social pressure/ interaction - but children and some adults still imitated everything the person did, despite some of it being irrelevant
• to extract maximum info from an event
• shows we are OPPORTUNISTIC SOCIAL LEARNERS - copy others to learn whenever we can

Question 36

What are the implications of overimitation

Answer 36

• social element is important
• need to belong and be part of group is very strong and present from early on
• Driven to fit in
• imitations of norms, attitudes and opinions - not just tasks
• May override personal judgement to be like another person