Psychology of Learning

Module 11: Observational Learning 1

Summary

What is Observational Learning?

Observational learning (also called vicarious learning, modeling, or imitation) is acquiring or modifying behavior by watching others rather than through direct experience.

• It represents a qualitative leap beyond reflexes, habituation, classical conditioning, and operant conditioning—allowing organisms to benefit from others’ experiences.
• Early failures (Thorndike’s puzzle box cats) reflected poor methodology, not absence of social learning. Later studies showed robust effects in animals and humans.
• Mechanisms range from social facilitation (seeing others act triggers the same behavior) and stimulus enhancement (attention drawn to objects) to true imitation requiring cognitive representation.
• Evidence includes infant imitation of facial gestures, mice copying joystick pushes, birds spreading milk‑bottle opening, and deferred imitation in quail.
• Factors influencing imitation include rewardingness, dominance, similarity, and sincerity of the model.

Observational Learning in Animals

Bennett Galef’s research on rats and quail exemplifies rigorous study of social learning.

• Rats: Social transmission of food preferences via demonstrator breath (carbon disulfide cue). Effects are robust, long‑lasting, and can even override conditioned taste aversions.
• Quail: Females show mate choice copying—preferring males seen with other females—while males avoid females observed with rivals. These choices affect reproductive success.
• Fear learning: Wallabies, frogs, and fish acquire predator avoidance socially, often via alarm cues or observing conspecifics’ fear responses.
• Environmental enrichment: Social rearing, stimulation, and conspecific modeling cumulatively enhance exploratory behavior.
• Primates: Chimpanzees acquire complex tool use through prolonged observation; social tolerance influences learning opportunities.
• Birds: Song learning requires exposure to tutors; foraging innovations spread culturally.
• Even solitary species show social learning in brief encounters.
• Researchers distinguish processes: stimulus/local enhancement, observational conditioning, emulation, and imitation, using tests like two‑action and ghost controls.

Psychological Explanations of Observational Learning

Bandura’s social‑cognitive theory explains how humans learn through observation.

• Behaviorist view (Miller & Dollard): imitation as a generalized operant response reinforced in the past; limited in explaining novel or deferred imitation.
• Bandura’s contributions: modeling enables vicarious learning—acquiring behaviors by watching others and their consequences.
  • o Types of change: direct imitation (new responses), inhibition/disinhibition (learning when to suppress or express known behaviors), and elicitation (triggering existing behaviors).
• Selective imitation: influenced by rewardingness, dominance, similarity, and sincerity of models.
• Four processes:
  • o Attention (noticing the model),
  • o Retention (encoding and remembering),
  • o Reproduction (motor capability),
  • o Motivation (incentives to perform).
• Vicarious reinforcement/punishment: observing consequences to models alters motivation.
• Self‑efficacy: belief in one’s ability to perform tasks, strengthened by observing similar others succeed.
• Agentic perspective & reciprocal determinism: humans actively shape their environment; behavior, personal factors, and environment interact dynamically.

Conclusion

Module 11 shows that observational learning is a powerful, widespread mechanism across species. It enables rapid, efficient adaptation without direct trial‑and‑error, shaped by social cues, cognitive processes, and motivational factors. Bandura’s framework integrates behavioral and cognitive perspectives, explaining how observation translates into performance and why some models are more influential than others.