Chapter 11 - Observational Learning and Rule-Governed Behaviour

Observational Learning

Behaviour of a model is witnessed by an observer, who’s behaviour is then changed

-Often referred to as social learning

-Can occur unconsciously

Rudimentary Forms of Social Behaviour

Rudimentary as they only result in a momentary change in behaviour

1. Contagious Behaviour

2. Stimulus Enhancement

Contagious Behaviour

Somewhat instinctive or reflexive behaviour triggered by observing the occurrence of the same behaviour in another individual

Example: Observing someone yawn results in you yawning, orienting response when others orient themselves

Stimulus Enhancement

Person more likely to approach a particular object or location because their attention has been drawn to the object/location by the behaviour of another individual

-Effective for increasing the probability of a behaviour associated with eating, drinking, or mating since they have strong instinctive components and are highly likely to occur in the presence of appropriate triggers

-Wide variety of cues (scent, learned symbols, etc)

Vicarious Emotional Responses

Classically conditioned emotional responses that result from the observation of that emotional response being exhibited by others

-Type of conditioning is called “vicarious emotional condition”

-Once acquired, motivate other types of new behaviour patterns

Often used by advertisers to influence view of their products

Methods of Vicarious Emotional Conditioning

Takes place in two ways:

1. Expression of fear in others acts as an US, elicits the emotion of fear in ourselves

• Jellyfish (NS): Look of Fear in Others (US) → Fear in Us (UR)

• Jellyfish (CS) → Fear in Us (CR)

2. More traditional way of viewing VEC, emotional reactions of others serve as a conditioned stimuli rather than a US, functions as a CS in higher-order conditioning of a fear response to another neutral stimulus

• Look of Fear in Others (NS1): Fightening Event (US) → Fear in Us (UR)

• Look of Fear in Others (CS1) → Fear in Us (CR)

• Jellyfish (NS2); Look of Fear in Others (CS1) → Fear in Us (CR)

• Jellyfish (CS2) → Fear in US (CR)

Observational Learning in Operant Conditioning

Emphasizes the distinction between acquisition and performance of a behaviour

-Example; watching parents drive a car, ACQUIRING the basic information to drive —> but you are underage so you are not permitted in translating that acquired knowledge in the PERFORMANCE of driving

Acquisition - Observational Learning in Operant Conditioning

First requires the observer pay attention to the behaviour of the model, attention influenced by:

1. Sensitivity to the consequences of the model’s behaviour (ex; if it’s reinforced, we’re more likely to attend to the behaviour)

2. Observing receiving reinforcement for the behaviour of attending to a model (ex; teacher providing verbal reinforcement for students paying attention)

3. Whether the observer has sufficient skills to benefit from modeling

4. Personal characteristics of a model (ex; more likely to attend to models who resemble us in age, dress, etc)

Performance

Translation of observational learning into behaviour, involving processes of reinforcement and punishment, effects on performance are:

1. More likely to perform a modeled behaviour when we have observed the modeled behaviour being reinforced (or punished), technically known as vicarious reinforcement/punishment

2. Consequence for the observer of performing the modeled behaviour; more likely to perform a modeled behaviour when we experience reinforcement/punishment for performing it

3. Our own history of reinforcement/punishment for performing modeled behaviours; learning when it is appropriate to perform modeled behaviours and learning who is an appropriate model (ie, modelling teachers, friends, family)

• Performance of a behaviour is also influenced by differential reinforcement in different contexts; swearing may be reinforced with close friends but punished by parents

True Imitation

Form of observational learning that involves the close duplication of a novel behaviour (or sequence of behaviours)

-Children have a strong tendency to imitate behaviours of those around them, with operant conditioning playing a major role in development of this ability

-Reinforcing children’s behaviour of imitations resulted in an increase in frequency of the behaviour and other behaviours displayed by models not reinforced

Generalized Imitation

Generalized tendency to imitate new modeled behaviours in the absence of any specific reinforcement for doing so

-Used by applied behaviour analysts when working with individuals deficient in ability to learn through observation, deliberately reinforcing imitation of some behaviours to produce a generalized tendency to imitate behaviours

Animal Imitation

-If an animal can imitate, it should be able to duplicate the actions performed by the model to obtain food

-Often times, animals don’t copy the exact action of the model

Bandura’s Bobo Doll Studies

Children observing adult models behaving aggressively towards a bobo doll resulted in children often learning to behave aggressively

-Aggressive behaviour of children in Bandura’s study was so similar to the model’s behaviour, it is considered True Imitation

Results of the Bobo Doll Study

1. Children who observed a model behaving aggressively toward the bobo doll and other targets tended to replicate the same behaviours when in the same room the model had previously occupied

2. Children were influenced by consequence that the model experienced while behaving aggressively; effect was stronger if the child had observed reinforcement of the adults aggressions and if they viewed punishment they had a decreased tendency

3. Children watching a televised fight in the presence of an adult who then responded approvingly, disapprovingly or no reaction. Children who heard disapproving comments had fewer aggressive behaviours ONLY when the disapproving adult was present

Social Learning and Media Violence

Bandura’s study found that filmed violence was as effective as live violence for inducing violent behaviour in observers

-Longitudinal studies have shown that exposure to violent media is strongly correlated with aggressive behavior and antisocial behaviour

-While men are more likely to become violent as a result of exposure, women may be more likely to become victims of violence

-Problem with media giving equal airtime to those who are skeptical about effects of media violence is that the public is misled into thinking evidence for such effects is weaker than it actually is

Rules and Instruction

Rule - Verbal description of a contingency (do X to get Y)

Instruction - A rule that indicates how one should behave with respect to a contingency (Do not do X because you will get Y)

-Both are useful for quickly establishing appropriate patterns of behaviour; similar to observational learning we learn to behave without a direct experience with the contingencies operating in the setting

Ex; you learn to not run through a red light but you don’t have experience running a red light

Rule-Governed Behaviour

Behaviour generated through exposure to rule

-Extent to which we follow instructions is based on the consequences received for following them

Child and Rule Learning

Children learn to follow rules through praise for following instructions and learn that following instructions is a good way to accomplish a task

-Most children acquire a generalized tendency to follow rules and instructions

Disadvantages of Rule-Governed Behaviour

1. Often less efficient than behaviour shaped by natural contingencies

• Ex; Learning soccer rules through reading won’t make you a good soccer player; requires actual practice

2. Behaviour is insensitive to actual contingencies of reinforcement in particular settings

• Ex; Persist taught to kick a ball a certain way may persist with it, even if it is inappropriate. They are locked in the notion they must “follow instructions” and will never evolve to an efficient level

Humans and Rule-Governed Behaviour Experiment

Participants told to press a button to earn money, but button pressing may not be very efficient based on the schedule of reinforcement:

-on a FI schedule, humans do not display scalloped pattern of responding as is typical with FI

-instead focus only on the rule to “push button to earn money”, never realize a constant rate of response is unnecessary (inefficient)

Personal Rule (Self-Instruction)

Verbal description of contingencies that we present to ourselves to influence our behaviour

-Many are “Say-Do Correspondence” - Occur when there is a close match between what we say we are going to do and what we actually do at a later time

Ex; “I will run at 4pm in the afternoon” then running at the time, the statement matches the behaviour

-Parents play a critical role in the development of correspondence

-Those trained on a high level of say-do correspondence more effectively use personal rules to influence behaviour

Drawback of Personal Rules

Helpful in managing behaviours, but not all personal rules are effective

-Most effective when they establish a “Bright Boundary” between acceptable and unacceptable patterns of behaviour

-We are more likely to succeed when the rule specifically sets out conditions to be obeyed or violated

Personal Process Rules / Implementation Intention

Personal Rules that indicate the specific process a task is to be accomplished

-Formulation of the rule tends to increase likelihood the task is to be accomplished