Observational learning

Observational learning is the learning that occurs through observing the behavior of other people. Albert Bandura, who is best known for the classic Bobo doll experiment, discovered this basic form of learning in 1986. Bandura stressed the importance of observational learning because it allowed children especially, to acquire new responses through observing others' behavior. This form of learning does not need reinforcement to occur; instead, a model is required. A social model can be a parent, sibling, friend, or teacher, but particularly in childhood a model is someone of authority or higher status. A social model is significantly important in observational learning because it allows one to cognitively process behavior, encode what is observed, and store it in memory for later imitation. While the model may not be intentionally trying to instill any particular behavior, many behaviors that one observes, remembers and imitates are actions that models display. A child may learn to swear, smack, smoke, and deem other inappropriate behavior acceptable through poor modeling. Bandura claims that children continually learn desirable and undesirable behavior through observational learning. Observational learning suggests that an individuals environment, cognition, and behavior all integrate and ultimately determine how one functions. Culture and environment also play a role in whether observational learning will be the dominant learning style in a person or community. In some cultures, children are expected to actively participate in their communities and are therefore exposed to different trades and roles on a daily basis [. This exposure allows children to observe and learn the different skills and practices that are valued in their communities. In communities where childrens primary mode of learning is through observation, the children are rarely separated from adult activities. This incorporation into the adult world at an early age allows children to use observational learning skills in multiple spheres of life. Culturally, they learn that their participation and contributions are valued in their communities. This teaches children that it is their duty as members of the community to observe work being done in order to gradually become involved and participate further in the community.

Stages of observational learning and its effects

Bandura's social cognitive learning theory states that there are four stages involved in observational learning: 1. 2. 3. 4. Attention-a state of consciousness characterized by concentration Retention-to continue to use, practice, etc. Production-to bring into existence Motivation-to have incentive to do something

Some have even added a step of encoding a behavior between attention and retention.

Observational learning leads to a change in an individual's behaviour along three dimensions: 1. An individuals thinks about a situation in a different way and may have incentive to react on it. 2. The change is a result of a person's direct experiences as opposed to being in-born. 3. For the most part, the change an individual has made is permanent.

Effect on behaviour
Observational learning can affect behavior in many ways, with both positive and negative consequences. It can teach completely new behaviors, for one. It can also increase or decrease the frequency of behaviors that have previously been learned. Observational learning can even encourage behaviors that were previously forbidden (for example, the violent behavior towards the Bobo doll that children imitated in Albert Bandura's study). Observational learning can also have an impact on behaviors that are similar to, but not identical to, the ones being modeled. For example, seeing a model excel at playing the piano may motivate an observer to play the saxophone.

Observational learning and effects on infants

Infancy is a period in life where children are quickly acquiring new skills. In one study utilizing 8-, 10-, 12-, 15and 18-month-old infants, the researchers used an indirect object retrieval task, in which the object was not directly retrievable, to examine the development of observational learning in infants when learning a new skill. There was a control condition that acted as a baseline measure, in which the children were given the object for 30 seconds and their reaction to the stimulus was recorded. This was compared to the demonstration condition, where the infants received three demonstrations of a task relative to their age groups ability, and two minutes after they had seen the last demonstration, they were given the object for 30 seconds to try and perform the task they had seen. Due to the difference in abilities between 8- and 18-month-old infants, the researchers had each age group perform the same relative task with a different absolute difficulty, reflecting what each age group can perform at that age. For example, 8-month-olds had a toy placed inside a box in front of them where only the two sides were open to retrieve the object, while 15-month-olds had a bottle with a small peg inside. Both tasks required the infants to retrieve the object, but the means by which they did it and the level of difficulty varied. The researchers found that through observation, there was an increase in performance that occurred between the ages of 10- and 12-months. This means that once an infant reaches 12-months of age, they are able to perform significantly better on an object retrieval task if they have learned through observational learning compared to if they did not receive a demonstration of the object retrieval task. The authors took this to mean that observational learning starts to become an effective tool for learning new motor tasks for infants by the time they reach their first birthday. The authors mentioned that these results might also suggest that children younger than 12-months may need more demonstrations than older infants do when learning a new task.

These results should be available and advertised to parents and caregivers of infants in order for them to be informed of the best ways to teach children new motor tasks at different ages. Understanding the results of studies such as this and being able to apply that knowledge can help caregivers in providing an environment conducive to optimal development for infants.

Bobo doll experiment

In 1965, Albert Bandura claimed that children learned by observing a social model. Therefore, to validate this claim, Bandura conducted a perhaps famous experiment at Stanford University called the Bobo Doll experiment. This experiment was based on a study of aggression, where he used an inflatable plastic toy that looked like a cartoon clown. These bottom-weighted toys were then given to nursery school children. Each of the school children watched a short film in which a social model demonstrated aggressive behavior towards the Bobo doll. These aggressive responses included hitting the doll and shouting "Bang bang!" and "Sockeroo!". The nursery children were divided into three experimental conditions. The three conditions consisted of modelrewarded, model-punished, and no-consequences. Children were then placed in a room with Bobo and other props used by the social model. Bandura discovered that children in the no-consequence and model-rewarded conditions imitated more aggressive actions than the children in the model punishment condition. Bandura did another experiment to investigate how much the children actually learned from observing. This time children were offered a juice box for reproducing the model's behavior. It was evident that all conditions learned the same amount by observing the model. This experiment is influential because it distinguishes between what a child learns through modeling and their willingness to perform these aggressive acts.