Learning through observation, imitation and modelling of another person or role model
- People can learn through observation
- Live Model: involves an actual individual demonstrating or acting out a behaviour
- Verbal Instruction Model: descriptions and explanations of a behaviour
- Symbolic Model: real/fictional characters displaying behaviours in media
- Effective Role Models:
- Same gender
- Same age
- Higher status
- Admired and/or respected
- Mental states are important to learning
- Intrinsic Reinforcement: internal reward, such as pride, satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment
- Learning does not necessarily lead to a change in behaviour
- People can learn new information without demonstrating new behaviours
- Cook and Mineka (1988) – found that reared Rhesus monkeys that initially displayed no fear of snakes, yet displayed alarm after watching anxious reactions from wild monkeys to snakes
- If the model’s behaviour is punished it might not be imitated, if it is rewarded then it is more likely to be imitated
- Pennington(1986) – three categories of variable that affect imitation:
- Characteristics of the observer
- Characteristics of the role model
- Consequences of the behaviour for the role model
Vicarious Learning
- Vicarious Reinforcement: learning via observing another person being rewarded for desirable behaviour
- Vicarious Punishment: tendency not to repeat behaviours that we observe others being punished for performing
- Vicarious Extinction: when you stop performing an action because you observe another person not being rewarded for it
The Modelling Process
- Attention to the role model
- Retention of the observed behaviour (encoding)
- Reproduction of the target behaviour (imitation)
- Motivation to imitate the observed behaviour