Task 8 - Observational Learning Flashcards
Define Social Learning
A process whereby an individual observes events and others’ actions and decides on how to act in future based on these experiences.
-> Learning from others
Why is social learning different from conditioning?
- It is less controlled
- The actual learning effect is unpredictable und dependent on subjective interpretation
Summarize the Bobo-Doll experiment
- Bandura, 1961
- Testing copying behavior of violent behavior
- Seeing adults behave violently towards a doll will increase the likelihood of the child also being violent towards “bobo”.
- Confounding factors: kids that showed aggressive behavior have also been provoked beforehand
Which theory was deducted from the Bobo-Doll experiments?
Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
- >
The kinds of reinforcements (-> experiences) an individual has had in its past determine, how this individual will act in the future
- > Developed not solely by Bandura
What are 4 processes that explain copying of behavior?
- Presence of a role model
- Accessible format (related to memory encoding)
- Ability to reproduce
- Motivation of reproduction
Which two types of imitation exist? Explain
- True imitation: copying by reproducing exact actions
- Emulation: copying that involves the achievement of the same outcome but by different means or a slightly different method
Explain the “two-action test” and what it is for.
- >
Test for investigating of an individual possesses the ability to imitate
- > Involves the test subject observing two other individuals solve the same task using different methods, one of them containing meaningless steps. If the naïve subject then copies the unnecessary steps, this is seen as “true imitation”.
What is an important (but not necessary) ability when trying to imitate/emulate witnessed behavior?
Perspective Taking
Name three processes that resemble imitation but actually aren’t and explain why they are not counted as imitation.
- Emotional Contagion – Laughing, yawning etc.
- Not imitation because it is more like an US-UR relationship - Observational Conditioning
- Learning a response to a stimulus after witnessing similar responses in others - Stimulus enhancement
- Having the same focus of attention or even directing someone else’s attention to sth is not imitation
What are some characteristics of social transmission of information?
- > Learning something new through experiences involving others
- Enables quick learning
- Difficult to study
- Can also be a form of social conformity
The idea, that memories for actions are stored in specific cortical areas, that map observed behavior onto their according motor representations, is called _________.
Direct-Matching Hypothesis
Lesions in which brain part can interrupt social learning?
Hippocampus
What are modulatory neurons in the basal forebrain important for?
- Social transmission
- Deficiencies here lead to retrograde amnesia, but not anterograde
Explain the workings of “mirror neurons” scientifically.
When viewing an action, motor neurons in the rostral part of the inferior premotor cortex, that are responsible for this action, are activated.
Why were the findings of Bandura’s Bobo-doll experiments surprising?
Because in this time, catharsis was still believed in. They expected the viewing of brutality to cleanse the wish to be violent out of the children.
