Observational Learning

Modified: 2020-03-27

Another category of learning is imitation or vicarious learning or observational learning. Much of human behavior is found in this category. Think of the following examples. What would you do if you were behind someone who just lost $1.25 in the soft-drink machine? Most likely you would not put your money in that machine. Or, suppose it is raining cats and dogs, and the people in front of you step off the curb into a puddle. They disappear and the umbrella they were sharing is floating on the puddle. Do you cross the street there? Television also provides a rich source of situations to imitate.

A real concern to many is whether or not television causes an increase in violent behavior in children and adults. Recently, television broadcasters have voluntarily adopted warning labels for violent shows. Those labels allow parents to control the television watching behavior of their children. The labels may also prevent congressional regulation of television content. The observational learning of undesired behaviors can be largely prevented in young children if parents watch shows with their children and explain the action as it occurs.

Another example of modeling for violent behavior occurs when parents say one thing but do another. For example, parents may tell older children that they may not hit a younger sibling. When they do, however, the parents spank the older children. Children detect a mixed message, namely, that violence is acceptable under certain circumstances, and their violent behavior may not be decreased by their parents' punishment. A similar pattern of abuse may explain the cycle of child abuse. Most child abusers were themselves abused children. Child abusers learned from their parents and are teaching their children to be abusers also.

Still another example is seen in an old public service television commercial. A father and son are enjoying a day at the park. The son is imitating everything his father does, such as throwing rocks into a pond. They sit with their backs to a tree, and the father lights up a cigarette. The ad ends with the child reaching for the cigarettes.

Do any animals model? A few do. Famous examples include the great tit, Parus major, a small European bird. In the 1930s and 40s researchers noticed that a great increase in cream stealing took place in Great Britain, and that it had spread north and west from London. Apparently, one great tit had learned to steal the cream from the top of milk bottles, others imitated, and the behavior became common over a 12 year period. (Most of you may not remember that milk used to be delivered door to door in bottles. The bottles had a cardboard top. Further, before homogenization was common, the cream was left in the bottle, because it was lighter it floated to the top. Hence the old saying.)

Japanese macaques, monkeys, have also been observed to learn by imitation or observation. The interesting thing about their learning is that its spread through the group depended on which monkey was being observed. If a dominant male was observed making a novel response, that response spread quickly through the group. Responses made by females spread much more slowly, and in some cases, older, dominant males never imitated those novel behaviors.

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