Ch. 11 Flashcards
(36 cards)
observational learning (often referred to as social learning)
the behavior of a model is witnessed by an observer and the observer’s behavior is subsequently changed.
Because observational learning is essentially a social process, and humans are social beings, we can quickly acquire new behavior patterns in this way.
this type of learning can occur without our even being aware that our behavior has been influenced in this way.
These models need not be aware that their behavior is being observed, which means that we do not have to “teach’” someone for them to learn from us.
—another reason the term social learning is often used.
- Being in a social situation can change behavior, even if no one in the group realizes it.
constitutes a significant aspect of Bandura’s social learning theory.
“observational learning,” not “observable learning.”
The latter simply refers to learning that we can observe taking place, such as when we watch a child going through the process of learning how to skate.
By contrast, an example of observational learning would be a child learning how to skate by watching other children skating.
Behavioral contagion and stimulus enhancement are clearly examples of social influence. But it can be argued that they are at best rudimentary forms of social influence in that they may result in only a momentary change in behavior
More substantial forms of learning occur when observation of a model plays a role in classical and operant conditioning
Contagious behavior
is a more-or-less instinctive or reflexive behavior triggered by observing the same behavior in another individual.
Ex:
- yawning
- Fear responses of all kinds are quite contagious, which makes good adaptive sense.
In a dangerous environment, you are more likely to survive and reproduce if you flee when you notice that someone else is fleeing, as opposed to taking the time to look around and ask a lot of questions,
Certain behaviors that are important for social interaction and bonding can also be contagious.
—we laugh more in the presence of others than when we are by ourselves
Orienting responses can also be contagious.
—Not only do we orient ourselves toward stimuli we have just sensed (like a sudden noise or movement in our peripheral visual field), but we also orient ourselves in the direction that others have oriented.
—this effect also occurs across species.
stimulus enhancement,
is related to contagious orienting
in which a person becomes more likely to approach a particular obiect or location because their attention has been drawn to that object or location by the behavior of another individual.
Stimulus enhancement is particularly effective for increasing the probability of a behavior associated with eating, drinking, or mating
Stimulus enhancement simply allows the triggers to be noticed.
Stimulus enhancement effects can also be generated by using learned symbols.
vicarious emotional responses
are classically conditioned emotional responses that result from the observation of that emotional response being exhibited by others.
This type of conditioning is therefore called vicarious emotional conditioning.
vicarious emotional responses, once acquired, can motivate other types of new behavior patterns
In fear conditioning, the expressions of fear in other people may function as both CSs and USs that elicit the same emotional response in ourselves.
Vicarious emotional conditioning
can take place in two ways.
expressions of fear in others may act as unconditioned stimuli (USs) that elicit the emotion of fear in ourselves
Observational Learning in Operant Conditioning
Descriptions of this process traditionally emphasize the distinction between acquisition and performance of a behavior.
Much social learning about food and flavor preference is related to stimulus enhancement and social referencing, through which individuals (especially young children) attend to those things that others are attending to, and look to others for emotional cues about how to behave.
Acquisition
Acquisition of an operant response (or, for that matter, a classically conditioned response) through observational learning first requires that the observer pay attention to the behavior of the model.
Of course, you can also acquire information about a behavior without ever translating that information into performance.
—violent scenes in movies, but very little people act them out
Acquisition
So, what makes us attend to a model?
1st factor
First, we are very sensitive to the consequences of the model’s behavior.
If a model’s behavior is being reinforced, an observer is more likely to attend to that behavior.
—For example, if you watch a television commercial featuring a man receiving lavish praise and affection for sending flowers to his partner, you are likely to learn that sending flowers may result in positive reinforcement.
Acquisition
So, what makes us attend to a model?
2nd factor
A second factor that influences attention is whether the observer receives reinforcement for the behavior of attending to a model
Teaching is often based on this principle.
— Teachers demonstrate desired behaviors something as basic as reading or as complex as writing a college essay and reinforce their students’ attention to their demonstrations.
—may also use various techniques for drawing attention to their behaviors, including prompting, and physical modeling
Acquisition
So, what makes us attend to a model?
3rd factor
A third determinant of whether we attend to a model depends on whether the observer has sufficient skills to benefit from the modeling.
For example, if a model plays the very simple tune “Chopsticks” on the piano, even a musically inexperienced observer may be able to pick up the tune quickly and, with appropriate help, play it themselves. However, if a model plays a complex Beethoven sonata, the observer may give up all hope of ever being able to play the piano
Modeling works only when observers have the skills necessary to learn the behavior.
Acquisition
So, what makes us attend to a model?
4th factor
Finally, the personal characteristics of a model can strongly influence the extent to which we will attend to their behaviour.
We are much more likely to attend to models who resemble us for example, if they are roughly the same age, dress similarly, and have similar interests.
We also attend to models we respect or admire, or who are noted authorities in that realm of activity.
Performance
3 factors
Reinforcement and punishment work to modify our behavior in modeling situations in three ways.
First, we are more likely (or less likely) to perform a modeled behavior when we have observed the modeled behavior being reinforced (or punished)
—The effect of such consequences on our behavior is technically known as vicarious reinforcement (or vicarious punishment).
A second factor that influences performance is the consequence for the observer of performing the modeled behavior.
—We are more (or less) likely to perform a modeled behavior when we ourselves will experience reinforcement (or punishment) for performing that behavior.
A third factor that influences our performance is our own history of reinforcement or punishment for performing modeled behaviors.
—Throughout our lives, we learn when it is appropriate to perform modeled behaviors as well as who is an appropriate model.
True Imitation
is a form of observational learning that involves the close duplication of a novel behavior (or sequence of behaviors).
For example, imagine that Chelsea is standing in a line outside an exclusive club when she sees a woman walk to the front of the line and begin flirting with the door attendant. The door attendant allows the woman to enter without standing in line. Chelsea gets out of line, walks up to the attendant, and also begins flirting with them.
If she flirts in a different way from the other woman (using her own “flirting style”), this would be an example of observational learning but not true imitation.
But if she flirts in virtually the same way as the other woman, which also happens to be quite different from the way Chelsea normally flirts (so it is a novel behavior pattern for her), then we would say that true imitation has taken place.
Generalized imitation
is therefore the generalized tendency to imitate new modeled behaviors in the absence of any specific reinforcement for doing so.
Applied behavior analysts make use of it when working with special needs individuals who are deficient in their ability to learn through observation. By deliberately reinforcing the imitation of some behaviors, therapists can produce in these individuals a generalized
tendency to imitate, which then greatly facilitates their ability to learn other behaviors.
Can Animals Imitate?
early animal behaviorists and learning theorists, like Romanes (1884), Morgan (1900), and Thorndike (1911),
debated whether animals could “intentionally” imitate (which could be construed as indicative of higher-level cognitive functioning)
or whether any appearance of imitation was due to some lower-level, perhaps instinctive, mechanism.
Can Animals Imitate?
Monkey and food in a box
Most of these studies have examined the ability of animals, usually monkeys and apes, to solve novel problems such as how to obtain food locked away in a box.
In a typical experiment, an observer animal watches a model animal perform a complex series of behaviors such as getting a key, opening a lock, pulling a lever, and then using a stick to pull food out of a hole that has now been revealed in the side of the box.
The observer animal is then given a chance to try opening the box. If the animal can imitate, it should be able to duplicate the actions performed by the model to obtain the food.
What often happens, though, is that the animals do not copy the actions of the model exactly they may pull the lever, for example, but not use the key; or they may turn the box over and shake it to remove the food rather than use the stick
Can Animals Imitate?
Chesler (1969) and kittens
demonstrated that kittens more quickly learned to press a lever for food if they had observed their mothers pressing a lever than if they had observed a strange female cat pressing the lever.
Galef (1988) pointed out that the study might simply demonstrate that mothers are better stimulus enhancers than strangers are.
— Kittens will likely pay more attention to their mother than to a stranger, and attend to any item that she manipulates.
Thus, simple stimulus enhancement (i.e., simply becoming more aware of a stimulus, such as the presence of a lever) could result in a duplication of behavior that looks a lot like imitation.
Due to these kinds of difficulties, some researchers have suggested that nonhuman animals are incapable of true imitation
Can Animals Imitate?
Horowitz (2003), and chimps and adult humans
Other researchers, however, have argued that sufficient evidence now exists, gathered from well-controlled studies, to indicate that at least some animals (especially birds and great apes) are capable of true imitation.
replicated a study using a task that had previously revealed greater evidence of true imitation in children than in chimpanzees, but also gave that task to adult humans.
found that the adults’ level of imitation was more similar to that of the chimpanzees than the children’s was!
In other words, both human adults and chimpanzees displayed more flexible behavior patterns in solving the problem as compared to the children, who had a stronger tendency simply to do what the model had demonstrated.
The lower rate of imitation that had been shown by chimpanzees compared to the children in the previous study therefore seems like a poor basis for drawing inferences about their lack of imitative ability, insofar as one can hardly argue that human adults are also incapable of true imitation.
Can Animals Imitate?
Russon and Galdikas (1993, 1995) and orangutans
observed orangutans living with humans in a camp designed to reintroduce the animals to the wild.
They found that the orangutans regularly copied the complex actions of the humans with whom they interacted, including learning to hang hammocks, build bridges, and use boats.
In one case, an orangutan even learned how to start a fire something that the researchers did not expect and certainly did not demonstrate on purpose!
Can Animals Teach?
can “deliberately” act as models for teaching another animal.
This is not an easy question to answer, because people usually assume that teaching requires a “conscious intention” to demonstrate, or transfer knowledge from one individual to another, which is obviously difficult to assess in nonhuman animals.
For example, consider a mother ape that seems to be calling her offspring’s attention toward her use of a tool, such as using a twig to dig an insect out of a hole in the ground.
By simply observing her actions, we may find it difficult to determine if she is trying to teach her young to use the tool to get food or simply trying to get food while at the same time keeping her offspring nearby.
If her offspring do learn to use the same tool in the same way, were they intentionally taught by the mother?
Or did the offspring simply pick up the behavior on their own through observational learning or stimulus enhancement?
Can Animals Teach?
True imitation
As with true imitation, some researchers have argued that teaching is a behavior performed only by humans.
They contend that evidence that does suggest teaching by animals is often anecdotal and subject to anthropomorphism (assuming human motives or characteristics when observing animal behavior).
Can Animals Teach?
The bonobo Kanzi
At the Georgia State University Language Research Center in Atlanta, a bonobo called Kanzi has been trained to communicate with people.
Realizing that some of his fellow apes do not have the same training, Kanzi occasionally adopts the role of teacher.
He once sat next to Tamuli, a younger sister who has had minimal exposure to human speech, while a researcher tried to get Tamuli to respond to simple verbal requests; the untrained bonobo didn’t respond.
As the researcher addressed Tamuli, it was Kanzi who began to act out the meanings. When Tamuli was asked to groom Kanzi, he took her hand and placed it under his chin, squeezing it between his chin and chest.
In this position, Kanzi stared into Tamuli’s eyes with what people interpreted as a questioning gaze. When Kanzi repeated the action, the young female rested her fingers on his chest as if wondering what to do
In the quote, you may have noticed several assumptions, which may or may not be warranted, that were made about Kanzi’s and Tamuli’s motives.
On the other hand, the behaviors Kanzi displayed are the types of behaviors that, with humans, we often use to infer the existence of an “intention.”
It is difficult, therefore, to witness a behavior like this and not have the impression that Kanzi is making a humanlike attempt at teaching.
But it should also be noted that Kanzi is unique among bonobos in his demonstrated language and problem-solving abilities and may have skills that are not typical of other apes.
The aggressive behavior of children in Bandura’s studies was so similar to the model’s behavior that it can be considered as an example of ___ ___?
- true imitation
Watching a model demonstrate violent behavior has been shown to lead to an increase in violence by observers; observing the reinforcement of violent behavior further increased the amount of violence displayed by observers.
Although children in Bandura’s study exhibited somewhat less violent behavior if the model’s behavior had been punished , their levels of violence increased again if they were later offered a(n) incentive for behaving violently.
Longitudinal studies and prospective studies are especially useful for isolating critical factors in violent behavior.
