observational learning Flashcards
observational learning
- tendency to observe and mimic others
social learning
- social influences alter people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour
modelling
- when observer demonstrates the learnt behaviour by mimicking it
four principles
- learning occurs when you observe the behaviour of others and the consequences of those behaviours
- learning can occur without there being an immediate change in behaviour; it can remain latent
- cognition plays a role in observational learning because the learner has awareness and expectations of future reinforcements and punishments, and these can influence whether the learnt behaviour will be demonstrated
- observational learning is a link between behaviourist theories of learning (operant and classical) and cognitive learning theories.
5 key processes
- attention
- retention
- reproduction
- motivation
- reinforcement
attention
- attention must be paid to the model’s behaviour and consequences
- the greater the similarity between model and observer and the more attractive and successful the model is, the more likely we are to follow
factors that influence attention
- cognitive capabilities
- if they like the model, learner is likely to pay careful attention
retention
- learnt behaviour must be stored in memory as a mental representation (understanding of what to do in the mind of the learner)
- cognitive aspect (memory must be stored, then retrieved to reproduce the behaviour)
reproduction
- does not perform the behaviour at this time
- they have the physical and intellectual capabilities to convert these mental representations into actions
motivation
- the learner must want to imitate the learnt behaviour
- depends on whether the learner believes there is a desirable consequence (reinforcement) for reproducing it
reinforcement
- when there is a prospect of a positive result for imitating the behaviour, thus making it likely for the learner to do so
- expectation of reinforcement or punishment influences the cognitive processes of the observer and this affects how well the learner pays attention to and retains the model’s behaviour
reinforcement can come from
model
third person
personal
vicariously
model reinforcement
e.g. parent praises
third person reinforcement
e.g. might have imitated the behaviour of a television personality but got praise from parent or teacher
personal reinforcement
imitator receives satisfying consequences
vicariously reinforcement
- positive consequences received by the model increase the likelihood of the observer imitating the model’s behaviour
- negative consequences for the model’s behaviour will decrease the likelihood of the observer imitating the models behaviour
3 conditions of observational learning
- model should be seen to be rewarded after the appropriate or inappropriate behaviour for it to be copied
- model must be appropriate for the learner; such as a parent
- learning can occur in real life
difference between operant and observational
- direct and indirect: operant learning is direct but observational learning is indirect
- unlike operant learning, observational learning is when there is a distinction between learning and performance because learning is not necessarily demonstrated unless there is a motivation
- role of cognition: unlike operant learning, observational learning involves cognition (thinking and memory) because they must tend to the model’s behaviour and its consequences and then store a mental representation of it.
similarities between operant and observational
- learner is active
- it is reinforcement rather than the learning itself influencing the likelihood of the observed behaviour being imitated
vicarious conditioning
individual watches a model’s behaviour being either reinforced or punished, and then subsequently behaves in exact same way or modified way or refrains from behaviour as a result of what they have observed
