Staats Chapter 6: Vicarious Reinforcement and Imitative Learning – Bandura

Question 1

Overview

Answer 1

Social learning cannot be adequately explained in terms of direct reinforcement principles

Nursery school children assigned to 4 groups:

Aggressive model-rewarded
**children showed more imitative aggression and preferred to emulate the successful aggressor

Aggressive model-punished
**children failed to reproduce model’s behavior and rejected him as a model for emulation

Control group – models were highly expressive but not aggressive models

Second control group– no exposure to models

*Imitation is dependent on response-consequences to the model

Question 2

Imitative Learning

Answer 2

Response acquisition is based on a process of covert mental conditioning

The observer acquires responses meditatively by covertly performing the behavior exhibited by a model

Question 3

Vicarious Reinforcement

Answer 3

Vicarious learning is contingent on the administration of reinforcing stimuli to the performing model

The observer presumably experiences the reinforcing stimuli as vicarious reinforcements