Social Learning Theory

1. Social Learning Theory

2. Social Learning Theory • Social learning theory focuses on the learning that occurs within a social context.

3. General principles of social learning theory follows: • People can learn by observing the behavior is of others and the outcomes of those behaviors • Learning can occur without a change in behavior. Behaviorists say that learning has to be represented by a permanent change in behavior, in contrast social learning theorists say that because people can learn through observation alone, their learning may not necessarily be shown in their performance. Learning may or may not result in a behavior change.

4. 3. Cognition plays a role in learning. Awareness and expectations of future reinforcements or punishments can have a major effect on the behaviors that people exhibit. 4. Social learning theory can be considered a bridge or a transition between behaviorist learning theories and cognitive learning theories.

5. How the environment reinforces and punishes modeling:

6. Social Learning Theory/Observational Learning- • responses are influenced by observing others (models) • Learning primary factor in development- of personality • Behavior is shaped by observing and imitating others

7. Bandura- 4 Key Processes to Observational Learning • Attention- must pay attention to another’s behavior • Retention- store a mental representation of what you witnessed for later retrieval • Reproduction- reproduce the response • Motivation- will the response pay off?

8. Bandura’s Study • Hypothesis- Children who witness aggressive actions by an adult model will display more aggressive behaviors than children exposed to no model or a non-aggressive model • i. Sex of model is important- more likely to imitate same-sex model • ii. Boys are more predisposed than girls towards imitating aggression b/c of highly masculine-typed behavior

9. Subjects • 36 boys, 36 girls • Ages: 3-6

10. Experimental Conditions i. 24- control group- No Model ii. 24- experimental group- Aggressive Model 1. Boy subgroup. – male model 2. Girl subgroup- male model 3. Boy subgroup- female model 4. Girl subgroup- female model iii. 24- experimental group- Non-aggressive Model 1. Boy subgroup – male model 2. Girl subgroup- male model 3. Boy subgroup- female model 4. Girl subgroup- female model

11. Experimental Procedures i. Child in room with an adult model- child playing with potato prints ii. Adult begins playing with tinker toys iii.Then aggressive model attacks Bobo the Doll 1. laid bobo on its side, sat on it, punched it in the nose 2. picked up a mallet and hit the doll in the head 3. tossed bobo in the air aggressively and kicked it about the room • repeated 3x saying “Clock him in the nose, Hit him down, throw him in the air, kick him, pow” and “he keeps coming back for more” and “he sure is a tough fella” • Took about 10 minutes

12. i. Non aggressive condition- model played with tinker toys for 10 min ii. Then subjects taken to a room with attractive toys. They play for a little bit and then the researchers say these toys are reserved for other children. iii. Researcher takes the child to another room with both aggressive and non-aggressive toys- subject plays in this room for 20 min (judges watch in a one-way mirror) iv. Measures of Aggression (Operational Definition): 1. all acts that imitated the physical aggression of the model a. sitting on Bobo, punching it in the nose, hitting it with a mallet b. imitation of the verbal aggression c. other mallet aggression • d. non-imitative aggression

13. Results • Average of 38.2 instances of imitative physical aggression for male subjects exposed to the aggressive model • Average of 12.7 (imitative physical aggression) for female subjects who were exposed to an aggressive model iii. Verbal aggression on average 17x for boys and 15.7x for girls

14. Why might there be a closer average when it comes to verbal aggression in boys and girls? Why a larger difference with they physical violence? P.88 “Girls were more likely to imitate verbal aggression while boys more inclined to imitate physical violence.” • Look at the chart- imitate verbal aggression and look at the huge difference between boys and girls depending on the sex of the model. What might account for this?

15. Subsequent Research 1. Live adult model more influential than filmed model. Film model more influential than cartoon model. 2. Children imitated violence more when they saw it rewarded and significantly less when the model is punished for aggressive behavior (What connections can you make with this concept to children’s cartoons?)

16. Edward Tolman:Latent Learning & Cognitve Mapping • behavior is cognitive purpose, could not be reduced to muscular stimuli/response. • Learning Principles: behavior has direction and purpose. Organisms act for ends, as if behavior were purposeful. Expectations occur when sufficient motivation is present. Tolman undertook a series of studies to demonstrate the purposive nature of behavior. • Expectancy was a determinant of performance whereas learning was accomplished by a process of "cognitive mapping" on a latent level.

17. Experimented using rats and mazes, sometimes using food, others not. • He found that although the rats learned the maze with or without the stimulus of food but their intensity and speed with which the rate coursed the maze was affected by the offer of reward.

18. To successfully show that rats used cognitive maps rather than just running and turning right, he used his rats as examples. He would run them through a maze similar to the one pictured below • Learning that is “hidden” internally rather than shown in behavior is called latent learning. • Studies of latent learning support a distinction between learning, an internal process, and behavior or performance, an observable process. Learning is inferred from behavior but is not the same thing as behavior

19. Latent Learning Slides • https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dcgctkx_1f23fvfgm&revision=_latest&start=0&theme=blank&cwj=true\

20. Köhler: Insight Learning • Studied chimps; presented them with a reward that was out of reach, chimps devised ways to reach that reward (tools, etc.) • 3 properties of insight learning: • insight-learning is based on the animal perceiving the solution to the problem. • insight-leaning is not dependent on rewards. • once a problem has been solved, it is easier to solve a similar problem