Observational Learning

Question 1

What is observational learning/social learning?

Answer 1

The tendency to mimic others by watching others without direct participation in the learning.

Question 2

What are the four principles of observational learning?

Answer 2

1. Learning occurs by observing the behaviour of others and the consequences of the behaviour.
2. Learning occurs with no immediate change in behaviour, remains latent.
3. Learner has awareness and expectations of future reinforcements or punishments, influencing whether the learnt behaviour will be demonstrated, showing that cognition plays a role.
4. There is a link between CC and OP and cognitive learning theories.

Question 3

What are the 5 stages of observational learning?

Answer 3

> Attention
> Retention
> Reproduction
> Motivation
> Reinforcement

Question 4

What is attention?

Answer 4

Attention is actively paid to the model behaviour and its consequences.

Question 5

What is retention?

Answer 5

The learnt behaviour is stored in memory as a mental representation and so it can be reproduced and utilised later.

Question 6

What is reproduction?

Answer 6

They have the physical and intellectual ability to convert the memory of the behaviour into actions.

Question 7

What is motivation?

Answer 7

The learner must want to imitate the learnt behaviour.

Question 8

What is reinforcement?

Answer 8

When a stimulus strengthens or increases the frequency of a response that it follows which influences the motivation to reproduce the observed behaviour.