Learning by observation develops early in development: as early as 14 months
Television violence has been seen to "model" children to be more violent
Assumptions of this theory:
People are active agents
Emphasizes cognitive
processes
Language ability
Observational
learning
Purposeful behaviour
Self-analysis
Emphasizes social processes
Behaviour is situation specific
Reciprocal determinism
Bandura was interested in…
Behaviours acquisition vs performance
Acquisition reinforcement not essential
Performance reinforcement
essential
Stages in observational learning process
Attention
To learn, you need to be paying attention
Pay attention eg: if model is interesting or novel = positive effect on
learning
Not pay attention eg: distracted, not
interesting = negative effect on learning
Retention
Store information
The ability to pull up information later and act on it is vital to observational learning
Reproduction
Perform the behaviour
you observed
Further practice of the learned behaviour leads
to improvement and skill advancement
Motivation/Reinforcement
You have to be motivated to imitate
the behaviour that has been modeled
Reinforcement and punishment play an
important role in motivation (either directly
experienced or observing someone else be
reinforced/punished – vicarious conditioning)