Social Learning Theory

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Social Learning Theory
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Social Learning Theory

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

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General principles of social learning theory
follows

1. People can learn by observing the behavior is of
   others and the outcomes of those behaviors
2. 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.

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• 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.

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How the environment reinforces and punishes
modeling
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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

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Bandura- 4 Key Processes to Observational
Learning

• Attention- must pay attention to anothers
  behavior
• Retention- store a mental representation of what
  you witnessed for later retrieval
• Reproduction- reproduce the response
• Motivation- will the response pay off?

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Banduras 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

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Subjects

• 36 boys, 36 girls
• Ages 3-6

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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

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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

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• 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

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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

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• 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?

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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
  childrens cartoons?)

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Edward TolmanLatent 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.

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• 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.

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• 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

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Latent Learning Slides

• https//docs.google.com/present/view?iddcgctkx_1f
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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

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