How we Learn - Observational Learning
Over the last weeks we have looked at
Classical conditioning and
Instrumental conditioning.
While these theories show how we learn from direct experience, it would hardly be efficient for us to learn only through the things that happen to us as an individual. Can you imagine if you had to cut off your finger to learn that it is painful and therefore conditioning not to do it again?
So how else do we learn?
We can learn through the observation of others. This is called modelling. No, not what you do on the catwalk, on the catwalk, yeah. This is also called observational learning. Modelling/observational learning describes the tendency for people to copy the actions, attitudes and emotional response of a model. By watching someone else, we learn and therefore create memories without experience the situation directly ourselves. Bandura is the father of observational learning. He outlined that people from a mental representation of a behaviour that they observe and use it later. What does this mean? We see some one do something and we made a note of that in our mind so we can use it for later. In other words, we learn from watching others.
However, this is more complex than simply mimicry or ‘monkey see, monkey do”. When we learn using observational learning we not use learn an exact process. We learn general rules and then apply these rules to our own future behaviour.
Any sci-fi fans out there? How many times do you see a robot or alien try to learn the intricacies of social interactions and get it wrong?
Imagine you were programming a robot to do something simple like paying the bill at a restaurant. In the first example, it watches you raise your hand, ask for the bill and wait until the bill gets there. Will the $70 bill get there, you place 1x$50 and 1x$20 note and leave.
Now you have taught your robot how to pay for a bill, right? Nope.
What if the bill was $80 instead? Your robot would leave $70 and walk off! What happens if the waiter brings over an credit card machine instead? What happens if you want to split the bill? What if you need to pay at the counter? A robot learning by mimicry would not be able to do these things.
However, if the robot was learning using observational learning, it learns the general principles. The exchange of currency for food. Asking for the bill. Paying before leaving. Paying after the meal. Paying the amount on the bill. Observational learning involves the learning of general rules by observing others and applying it to our future behaviour.
Further to this, modelling doesn’t need to be from an actual person. We learn from people we have never met, through TV and other media.
However, this does not simply imply that we do what we see. It simply shows that we learn through the observation of others.
Bandura conducted a famous experiment on this. He used three groups and a ‘bobo’ doll. A what, you say? A bobo doll is an inflatable doll that stays upright. You hit it and it bounces back up. Each group was shown someone interacting with the bobo doll in a different way.
1. The first group watched someone be aggressive to the doll without any consequence to their actions.
2. The second group was rewarded for being aggressive to the doll.
3. The last group was punished for being aggressive to the doll.
The groups were then put into a room with toys including a bobo doll. Can you guess what happened? Who do you think was more aggressive to the bobo doll?
Yep, those who saw someone be punished for being aggressive to the doll were less aggressive to the doll, themselves. They learned from the mistakes of others.
Observational learning is evident in many aspects of life. Kids learn to speak by observing their parents speak with others. We learn what behaviour is acceptable and unacceptable by watching the behaviours of others. Mass media is also a great example of this. Charles Atkins (1980) found that two-thirds of a group of kids who saw an ad with a strong man eating cereal believed that the cereal would make them strong too. A study on the long term effects of violence in the media found that people who watched high levels of violence when they were young, were later more aggressive in early adulthood[i]
It is no surprise then, that observational learning is so widely used in psychological theories of crime. It is used to understand why those who grow up in abusive households have a high risk of being criminals and those who socialise with criminals also are more likely to commit crimes.
On the positive side, perhaps it helps to explain the saying that we are the average of our five closest friends. If we learn from observing positive people around us, we are more likely to learn positive things.
Think about your choices in life. Who did you learn your behaviours from?
[i] Huesmann et al., 2003