L&B chapter 11

elimination of fears and unwanted behaviors

-As a treatment for phobias, modeling sometimes offers several advantages over systematic desensitization: -Modeling can be used with very young patients, who may not be able to follow the therapist's instructions during deep-muscle relaxation training. -Modeling can be a more rapid procedure and require less of the therapist's time, especially when films or videos are used. -Because of the realistic nature of some modeling procedures, there may be better generalization to real-world situations. -Not surprisingly, Bandura and his colleagues conducted some of the earliest experiments on modeling as a technique for therapy. Bandura, Grusec, and Menlove (1967) attempted to reduce excessive fears of dogs in young children. -The children were divided into four groups. -The first group received eight 3-minute sessions of graduated modeling in which they observed a child of their own age engage in more and more demanding interactions with a friendly dog. The child approached the dog, petted it, fed it biscuits, walked around with the dog on a leash, and finally climbed into the dog's pen and played with it. In this group, the modeling sequences took place in a party context (with party hats, balloons, cookies, and prizes) to reduce anxiety. -A second group of children observed the same modeling sequences without the party context. -A third group experienced the party context with the dog present but with no model (to control for exposure to the dog). -A fourth group experienced the party context but without the dog and the model. -All children then received two post-treatment behavioral tests in which they were asked to imitate the model, one immediately and a second a month later. -Both groups with the model later showed less fear of a dog than the two groups without a model, and there was no significant difference between the party context and the neutral context. -For the two groups that watched the model, these improvements remained essentially unchanged a month later. -In a variation called participant modeling, the model first performs a behavior related to the phobia and then the patient imitates the behavior of the model. In each step of the treatment, the patient's involvement with the object of the phobia becomes more demanding. -For example, Love, Matson, and West (1990) had the mothers of boys with autism serve as models to treat their phobias. -For Kenny, who had a fear of going outdoors, his mother first modeled going a few steps outside the front door to retrieve an object. -She then used prompting and gentle guidance to encourage Kenny to perform the same behavior. -Over time, the distance outside the door was gradually increased until Kenny was able to go out into the yard without crying or other signs of fear. -Participant modeling has been successful when used to treat other types of phobias, such as fears of spiders, birds, needles, or dentists, and in some instances a single treatment session is all that is needed to produce long-lasting benefits. -Modeling can also be used to reduce other unwanted responses. -Middleton and Cartledge (1995) used modeling in combination with other behavioral techniques, including reinforcement of incompatible behaviors, to reduce aggressive behaviors in 6- to 9-year-old boys. -Meichenbaum and Goodman (1971) used modeling to improve the academic performance of first-grade children with hyperactivity. -These children often do poorly in school, partly because they tend to behave erratically or carelessly when working on a challenging task. -The goal of Meichenbaum and Goodman was to reduce or eliminate such reckless and error-prone behaviors. They noted that these children exhibit less self-instruction than do average children of their age. For instance, when painting a picture, a typical first-grader might be heard to utter self-instructions such as "Don't spill the paint" or "I want to make a nice, straight line." -Meichenbaum and Goodman observed that in children with hyperactivity, either such self-instructions are absent or, if present, they are nevertheless followed by the wrong behavior. -Their treatment, therefore, consisted of having a child watch an adult model who gave himself overt self-instructions while performing various tasks. -Later, the adult would give the child similar instructions as the child worked on the task; eventually, the child was trained to give himself such instructions as he worked. -The modeling of self-instruction was also given for more complex tasks. -After this training, these children showed significant improvements on a number of standardized tests, and this improvement was maintained in a 1-month follow-up. -As with most cases in which a behavior therapist wishes to eliminate one behavior pattern (careless performance in this case), the modeling techniques used by Meichenbaum and Goodman involved teaching an alternative behavior pattern (following one's self- instructions to work carefully) that was incompatible with the unwanted behavior. -Other studies have found further evidence that modeling and self-instruction, often used in combination with other techniques, can be effective reducing hyperactivity, aggression, and generalized anxiety in children.

television violence and aggressive behavior

-Bandura' pioneering research on modeling and aggression set the stage for the continuing debate over whether violence on TV makes the people who watch it more violent. -This question has been difficult to answer, but now there is substantial evidence that TV viewing can affect the attitudes and behavior of both children and adults. -Many studies with children and adolescents have found a positive correlation between the amount of TV they watch and their level of aggressiveness in everyday life. -However, the results are not always straightforward: A study on fourth-to sixth-grade children in the United States found detrimental effects of TV violence for females and white males, but not for African-American males. -Furthermore, a problem with correlational evidence is that correlation does not imply causation; that is, a correlation between two variables does not necessarily mean that the first variable is the cause of the second. -Thus, a correlation between TV violence and aggressive behavior in children might or might not mean that watching TV violence causes aggressive behavior. -Another possibility is that aggressive tendencies are the cause and watching TV violence is the effect: Perhaps those children who have more aggressive personalities to begin with (for whatever reasons) choose to watch more TV violence than less aggressive children, because the aggressive children find it more enjoyable. -Yet another possibility is that both variables, watching TV violence and aggressiveness, could be influenced by some third variable, such as a stressful living situation. -To avoid the weaknesses of correlational evidence, those who study the effects of TV violence have used a number of strategies. -One strategy is to conduct a longitudinal study in which the relevant variables are measured at different points in time. -For example, in a well-known study, Eron, Huesmann, Lefkowitz, and Walder (1972) examined the TV-viewing habits and aggressive tendencies of more than 200 third-grade boys; then they reexamined these same boys 10 years later. -They found a moderate correlation between preference for violent TV in the third grade and aggressiveness 10 years later. Conversely, they found no correlation between aggressiveness in third grade and preference for violent TV 10 years later. -This pattern of results suggests that watching violent TV can lead to later aggressiveness, not the reverse. Other longitudinal studies have corroborated these findings. -Furthermore, the effects of TV violence are not limited to young children. One longitudinal study found a substantial correlation between the amount of TV exposure at age 22 and assault and fighting at age 30. -Another strategy in this area of research has been to conduct controlled experiments in which participants are randomly assigned to an experimental group that observes aggressive behavior or to a control group that does not. -Studies of this type have generally found increases in aggressiveness after children watch violent TV programs. -A problem with these laboratory experiments, however, is that both the TV viewing and the measurement of aggressiveness take place in very brief time periods and restricted environments, and it is not clear how much applicability they have to real life. -To deal with this problem, some researchers have conducted field experiments in which the TV viewing and the measurement of aggressive behaviors occur in more realistic settings. For example, children have been exposed to either violent or nonviolent TV programs over a period of several weeks, and their aggressiveness has been assessed in normal activities, such as free-play time at school. -In general, the results of field experiments show a modest effect of TV violence on aggressive behavior. -After analyzing the results of many studies, Hogben (1998) concluded that some types of TV violence are more strongly correlated with viewer aggression than others. Stronger correlations with viewer aggression are found for TV programs in which the violence seems justified (as when the character is fighting for a good cause), and weaker correlations are found when a program emphasizes the unpleasant consequences of violence (the suffering of the victim or punishment of the aggressor). -It appears that it is not simply the presence of violence in a TV program but how the violence is portrayed that is important. Watching TV can, of course, affect children in many other ways as well. Children who sit and watch TV for many hours each day are using up time that might be spent more productively. -One extensive correlational study found an inverse relationship between the amount of TV that children watched and their reading comprehension scores on standardized tests, with much lower test scores for children who watched more than 4 hours of TV a day. -However, the effects of TV can sometimes be beneficial. Educational programs such as Sesame Street can give young children valuable information about letters and words, numbers, and social skills. Some longitudinal research (designed so that cause and effect could be sorted out) has found that children who were regular viewers of Sesame Street between the ages of 3 and 5 had higher vocabulary skills 2 years later than those who did not watch this program as often. -Watching other shows, such as Arthur and Dora the Explorer, has been correlated with increased vocabulary and language expressive skills in young children. It should come as no surprise that TV can have many different effects on the viewer. As with most examples of modern technology, it is not the device itself but how it is used that determines whether the effects will be desirable or undesirable.

Bandura and Walters (1963) suggested that a model can influence an observer's behavior in three main ways, and each of these is used by behavior therapists:

-First, a model's behavior can facilitate responses the observer already knows how to perform. -Second, an observer may learn how to produce totally new behaviors. -Third, undesired responses, such as fear reactions to harmless objects or situations (phobias), can be reduced or eliminated through observational learning.

William James

-believed that other animals were also capable of learning by imitation

behavioral skills training

a technique in which modeling is used as part of a larger program that may include verbal instruction, prompting, guided practice, and feedback

Some early psychologists suggested that people and other animals have an innate propensity to...

imitate behaviors they see others perform. (This is a true observation even for newborn infants)

In an influential book, Social Learning and Imitation, Miller and Dollard claimed that observational learning is not an additional type of learning; rather, it is simply a special case of ________. The behavior of some other person is the _______ that indicates what response is appropriate.

operant conditioning discriminative stimulus

By social learning theory, Bandura and Walters meant a combination of: 1. ____________ 2. ___________

the traditional principles of classical and operant conditioning the principles of observational learning, or imitation

graduated modeling

the method of progressing from simple to more demanding behaviors; a frequent component in many modeling programs

As Bandura (1969) has pointed out, Miller and Dollard's analysis of imitation applies only to those instances in which a learner...

(1) observes the behavior of a model, (2) immediately copies the response, and (3) receives reinforcement. -Many everyday examples of imitation do not follow this pattern. -For instance, suppose a little girl watches her mother make herself a bowl of cereal: The mother takes a bowl out of the cabinet, pours in the cereal, and then adds milk and sugar. The next day, when the mother is not in the kitchen, the girl may decide to make herself a bowl of cereal, and she may do so successfully. -Here we have an example of imitation, of learning by observation; but notice that if the girl had never performed this sequence of behaviors before, she obviously could not have been reinforced for these behaviors. -This example therefore illustrates a case of learning without prior practice of the response and without prior reinforcement. -Just as the principle of reinforcement cannot explain why a rat makes its first lever press (before receiving any reinforcers for that behavior), it cannot, by itself, explain the first occurrence of any response learned by observation. -However, the principle of reinforcement can account for some instances of novel behavior if we include the concept of generalization. -If the young girl had been previously reinforced for imitating the behaviors of her parents, her imitation of the behaviors involved in making a bowl of cereal might be simply an example of generalization. -This explanation seems plausible considering that most parents frequently reinforce their children for imitation. -Imitating a parent's behavior of speaking a word or phrase, of solving a puzzle, of holding a spoon correctly, and the like may be reinforced with smiles, hugs, and praise. It would not be surprising if this history of reinforcement led to the imitation of other behaviors. -Generalized imitation has been demonstrated in a number of experiments. -For example, children with profound retardation were reinforced for imitating a variety of behaviors performed by the teacher (standing up, nodding yes, opening a door). After establishing imitative responses (which required several sessions), the teacher occasionally performed various new behaviors, and the children would also imitate these behaviors although they never received reinforcers for doing so. -Other studies have also demonstrated generalized imitative behavior in children.

aggression

-Bandura and Walters (1963) presented evidence that parents' behaviors can influence the aggressiveness of their children in conflicting and seemingly paradoxical ways. -The apparent paradox is that parents who use the most severe punishment for aggressive behaviors tend to produce more aggressive children. -On the surface, this seemed to suggest that punishment is ineffective as a deterrent for aggressive behaviors, a finding that conflicts with the ample evidence showing that punishment is an effective procedure for eliminating unwanted behaviors. -Bandura and Walters (1959) pointed out that this apparent paradox is resolved when we realize that parents who use physical punishment with their children are providing their children with models of aggressive behavior. -They showed that children whose parents punished aggressive behaviors usually avoided aggressive behaviors when their parents were present, but they were aggressive in their interactions outside the home. -When parents use threats and physical force to discipline their children, the children often use these same techniques in dealing with peers. The children of parents who make use of force so severe it must be termed child abuse are prone to being more aggressive when they become adults. -Victims of childhood physical abuse are more likely to resort to physical punishment and child abuse when they become parents. -All of these results are consistent with the view that when they discipline their children, parents are serving as models as well as controlling agents. -These findings do not mean, however, that parents should feel helpless when they see aggressive behaviors in their children. Research has shown that such techniques can successfully reduce aggressive behaviors and that parents of unusually aggressive children can be trained to use those techniques. -The advantage of these techniques is that besides reducing unwanted behaviors, they provide the child with a model whose reaction is firm yet moderate and nonviolent when displeased with someone else's behavior.

Which theory of imitation is best?

-Bandura has claimed that his theory of imitation is better than the theory of generalized imitation because it makes clearer and more specific predictions about when imitation will occur. -He argued that two problems with the theory of generalized imitation are (1) that it does not explain why observers will imitate a reinforced model more readily than a punished model and (2) that it does not explain why the children in all three groups were able to imitate when offered a reward for doing so. -Not everyone agrees with Bandura's assessment, however. -Kymissis and Poulson (1990) have proposed that the theory of generalized imitation can account for all types of imitative behaviors, using only well-established principles of operant conditioning. -Based on what we know about generalization, it seems reasonable to make the following, specific prediction from the theory of generalized imitation: Imitation will most likely occur when the current situation is similar to situations in which the observer has been reinforced for imitation in the past. Conversely, imitation will least likely occur when the current situation is similar to situations in which the observer has been punished in the past. -Let us try to apply these two principles to the results of Bandura's (1965) experiment: -Why did children frequently fail to imitate the adult model who was punished? -A plausible answer from the theory of generalized imitation is that the children learned from past experience that it is not a good idea to imitate someone who has just been punished. The fact that children in all groups exhibited large amounts of imitation when they were offered rewards poses no real problem for theory of generalized imitation either. -This result is similar to the Tolman and Honzik (1930) latent learning experiment, in which rats displayed their ability to run through a maze without errors only after food became available in the goal box. Since that classic experiment, behaviorists have recognized the distinction between learning and performance, and some have concluded that reinforcement is not essential for learning but it is essential for the performance of learned behaviors. -In summary, Bandura's claim that the theory of generalized imitation cannot explain his results is not correct. -Both theories can account for the results, but they do so in slightly different ways. -Whereas Bandura's theory uses concepts such as attention, retention, and expectation of reward, the theory of generalized imitation relies on behavioral principles such as stimulus discrimination, generalization, and the learning/ performance distinction.

moral standards and behavior

-Bandura proposed that a child's judgments about what behaviors are good and what behaviors are bad are largely learned by observation. -A child whose parents are impeccably honest in all financial matters may learn to behave the same way. A child who sees and hears his parents cheat on their taxes, steal from their employers, and ignore their bills whenever possible may decide that these are acceptable or even desirable activities. -A number of experiments have shown that the behavior of a model can influence the behavior of observers in situations where morally laudable or deplorable behaviors are involved. -For instance, it has been found that children are more altruistic after observing an altruistic model, and that both children and adults are more likely to break rules or laws after observing a model do so. -Research by D. P. Phillips (1982) provides a striking example of how observing a model can increase a person's likelihood of performing an action that many consider to be both gravely immoral and irrational. -Using statistics from the year 1977, Phillips found a significant increase in the number of suicides, motor vehicle deaths, and serious motor vehicle injuries in the several days that followed the suicide of a character in a nationally broadcast soap opera. For each instance of a soap opera suicide, Phillips used the preceding week as a baseline period, and he was careful to correct his data for seasonal fluctuations, to exclude data from holiday periods, and so on. Phillips's explanation of his results is that soap operas are widely watched, that many viewers identify themselves with the characters, and that the suicide of a character leads some (admittedly few) viewers to attempt to imitate this behavior. He interprets the increased motor vehicle accidents as disguised suicides or attempted suicides. -Similar increases in suicides and suicide attempts have been found in the days that follow TV news stories about suicide that are reported in the media (Martin, 1998). However, not all researchers are convinced by these findings, and the topic is still being studied and debated. -Hittner (2005) reanalyzed the data from Phillips's studies using different statistical techniques, and he found "only partial support" for imitative suicides after suicides on TV. Still, this research raises some difficult policy issues for the producers of TV dramas and news programs.

Miller and Dollard (1941)

-In an influential book, Social Learning and Imitation, they claimed that observational learning is not an additional type of learning (besides classical and operant conditioning); rather, it is simply a special case of operant conditioning. -Discriminative stimuli play a crucial role in operant conditioning both inside and outside the laboratory. -For instance, a laboratory animal may learn to make one response in the presence of a red light, another response in the presence of a green light, and yet another response in the presence of a yellow light. (A person driving a car has also learned different responses to these three stimuli.) -According to Miller and Dollard, observational learning involves situations where the discriminative stimulus is the behavior of another person, and the appropriate response just happens to be a similar behavior on the part of the observer. -One of Miller and Dollard's many experiments will illustrate their approach. -First-grade children participated in this experiment in pairs, with one child being the "leader" and the other the "learner." -On each of several trials, the two children would enter a room in which there were two chairs with a large box on top of each. -The leader was instructed in advance to go to one of the two boxes, where there might be a piece of candy. -The learner could see where the leader went, but not whether the leader obtained any candy. -Next, it was the learner's turn to go to one of the two boxes, where he or she might or might not find a piece of candy. -Half of the learners were in an imitation group—they were reinforced for making the same choice as the leader. -The other learners were in the non-imitation group—they obtained reinforcement if their choice was opposite that of the leader. -The result of this simple experiment was not surprising: After a few trials, children in the imitation group always copied the response of the leader, and those in the non-imitation group always made the opposite response. -Miller and Dollard concluded that, like any other operant response, imitation will occur if an individual is reinforced for imitating. Conversely, nonimitation will occur if non-imitation is reinforced. In both cases, the behavior of some other person is the discriminative stimulus that indicates what response is appropriate. Similar follow-the-leader behavior has been observed in rats and other animals. -According to Miller and Dollard, then, imitative learning fits nicely into the Skinnerian threeterm contingency of discriminative stimulus, response, and reinforcement. There is no need to claim that observational learning is a separate class of learning that is different from operant conditioning.

drug use and addictions

-In the discussion of the Solomon and Corbit theory, when someone tries to quit smoking or using addictive drugs, there are often aversive withdrawal symptoms that can be escaped (all too conveniently) by further intake of the addictive substance. -However, observational learning and social reinforcement can help to explain why such addictions are developed in the first place. -For example, consider the fact that smoking one's first cigarette is usually an aversive event, involving harsh and burning sensations. Why then does a person ever smoke again? -One answer is based on observational learning: Even when very young, many children are exposed to parents, older siblings, celebrities, and others who smoke. The consequences of this behavior may appear to be positive: Some people say they started smoking because smokers seemed to be more mature, sophisticated, or attractive. Perhaps these advantages outweigh a little burning in the throat for the beginning smoker. -In addition, among teenagers, peers often deliver strong social reinforcers for smoking: They may encourage nonsmokers to begin and ridicule those who do not. These joint factors of observational learning and social reinforcement are frequently cited as major contributors to the onset of smoking, and it has repeatedly been found that the tendency to smoke is correlated with the smoking habits of one's parents, spouse, and peers. -The principles of social learning theory also appear to be important in the development of alcoholism and drug abuse. -It has been found that about 20% of all heroin addicts have one or more family members who are also addicted. -Similarly, a family history of alcohol abuse has been shown to be a predictor of alcohol use in college students. -Of course, either learning or hereditary factors could cause similar patterns of drug and alcohol use within a family. -However, several types of evidence show that similar drug use among family members is not entirely due to heredity. Andrews, Hops, and Duncan (1997) found that adolescents who had good relationships with their parents were more likely to imitate their use of cigarettes, marijuana, and alcohol than those who had poor relationships. -Furthermore, similar drug and alcohol use among peers cannot be due to hereditary factors if the members of a peer group are not related. -In fact, researchers have found that drug and alcohol use among adolescents is more highly correlated with the habits of their peers than with the habits of their parents, which suggests that observational learning and social reinforcement play an important role.

social learning theory

-In their classic book, Social Learning and Personality Development (1963), Bandura and Walters argued that traditional learning theory was grossly incomplete because it neglected the role of observational learning. Traditional learning theory emphasizes the importance of individual experience: An individual performs some behavior and experiences the consequences that follow. The point of Bandura and Walters was that a good deal of learning occurs through vicarious rather than personal experience: We observe the behavior of others, we observe the consequences, and later we may imitate their behavior. In short, Bandura and Walters claim that the traditional approach to learning, which stresses personal experience and practice, is insufficient—it can account for some types of learning but not all. -Bandura and Walters believed that early childhood experiences can have a profound influence on adult personality and that they exerted their influence through the principles of social learning theory. -By social learning theory, Bandura and Walters meant a combination of (1) the traditional principles of classical and operant conditioning, plus (2) the principles of observational learning, or imitation. Thus, they felt that they were not rejecting the principles of traditional learning theory but rather were adding one more important principle of learning to the list.

cognitive development

-Many developmental psychologists, such as Jean Piaget (1926), have suggested that as children grow, they pass through a number of stages of cognitive ability, and that the passage from one stage to the next depends heavily on growth, maturation, and personal experience. -In contrast, social learning theorists claim that observational learning plays a major role in the development and refinement of cognitive skills. -As a representative test of cognitive development, let us consider the well-known conservation task. -In one version of this task, a child is shown three clear cylindrical beakers, as illustrated in Figure 3. Beakers A and B are identical, and they contain the same amount of water. -The test begins by asking the child which has more water, and the child usually says that A and B have the same amount. Then, as the child watches, the contents of B are poured into beaker C, a taller and thinner beaker. -The child is then asked whether A or C has more water. Children are said to have mastered the concept of conservation of volume if they say that A and C have the same amount of water. However, children who are younger than about age 7 usually say there is more water in C. They are apparently misled by the higher water level in C. These children are called nonconservers because they have not yet learned that liquids retain a constant volume regardless of the shape of the container they are in. -Rosenthal and Zimmerman (1972, 1978) showed that a child's mastery of the conservation task can be enhanced by observational learning. -They had children who were nonconservers observe a model (an adult female) perform correctly on the conservation task. -In one group, the model gave an explanation for her answer that A and C had the same amount of water (e.g., "Because they were the same in the first place"), and in another group she gave no explanation. -In a subsequent test, children in both groups showed improved performance on conservation tasks, and those who heard the model explain her choices improved the most. -Some of the children were only 4 to 5 years old, well below the age at which children typically master the conservation task. The children's improved performances generalized to other types of conservation tasks (e.g., a conservation-of-number task, which involves an understanding that the number of objects in a row does not change if the row is made longer by spacing the objects farther apart). -Many other cognitive skills can be improved through observational learning. Children can learn grammatical rules, abstract concepts, and problem- solving skills by observing a model. -Earlier in life, observational learning can help infants learn about retrieving objects that cannot be obtained by simple reaching. In one study, 8- to 18-month-old infants observed an adult who demonstrated how to retrieve an object that was out of direct reach. Then the infants were given a chance to retrieve the object themselves. Infants who observed the adult model performed better than those in a control group, especially those 12 months of age or older.

video games and popular music

-Many studies have found that playing violent video games can increase aggressive behaviors in children, particularly when the games are most realistic. -In fact, playing violent video games may have a greater effect on aggressive behavior in children than watching violence on TV because video games involve active participation. -One study found that boys who actually played a violent video game were later more aggressive than boys who simply watched another child playing the game. -As with TV viewing, playing video games can also have some positive effects. Regular playing of video games with fast action can lead to improved attention and perceptual skills. -Video games designed for health education and physical education in children have had some success, and those that require physical activity to play the game may help promote physical fitness. -With elderly adults, one study found that playing video games that include physical activity led to less depression. -There have also been some studies on music lyrics and music videos with violent content. Determining the short-term and long-term effects of exposure to such music is a difficult task. However, some research has found evidence that listening to music with violent lyrics can increase aggressive thoughts and emotions in adolescents. -One study reported a correlation between the amount of music videos children watched on TV and their levels of physical and verbal aggression. Not all studies on this topic have found statistically significant effects, but overall the findings suggest that music with violent and antisocial lyrics can have undesirable effects on the attitudes, emotions, and behaviors of children and adolescents.

assertiveness training

-Modeling has been used in assertiveness training for people who are overly submissive in certain situations and want to develop the ability to stand up for their rights. -For example, some wives (or husbands) may do whatever their spouses decide is best, regardless of what they think about a decision. -Some young adults may be bullied by their parents into occupations or lifestyles they do not really like. -Some people have difficulty refusing unreasonable requests made by friends, employers, co-workers, relatives, or strangers. -The goal of assertiveness training is to help people deal with these situations more effectively. -Frequently the training consists of a combination of modeling, role playing, and behavioral rehearsal, in which the therapist describes a hypothetical situation, models an appropriate response, asks the client to imitate this response, and evaluates the client's performance. -A few sessions of such assertiveness training can have long-term benefits. -Kirkland and Caughlin-Carver (1982) found that adults with mental disabilities who received 14 sessions of training showed significant improvement in their ability to refuse unreasonable requests politely, and these improvements were maintained in observations made 12 weeks after the end of training. -In another example where modeling was used to increase low-probability behaviors, O'Connor (1969) used filmed models to increase the sociability of nursery-school children who were socially withdrawn. -In a classroom setting, the children would keep to themselves and rarely interact with other children or adults. Children in the experimental group saw a 23-minute film depicting a child of similar age engaging in a series of social interactions. The film began with relatively calm activities, such as two children sharing a book or toy while seated at a table. The film progressed through more involved and energetic social interactions, eventually ending with a scene with six children throwing toys around the room with obvious enjoyment. -This method of progressing from simple to more demanding behaviors is called graduated modeling, and it is a frequent component in many modeling programs. Children in a control group saw a film of equal length about dolphins that contained no human characters. Immediately after viewing one of the films, the children returned to their classrooms, where observers recorded their behaviors. There was a five-fold increase in the number of social interactions for children in the experimental group, and no increase in the control group.

acquisition of new behaviors

-Perhaps the best therapeutic example of the training of totally new behaviors through modeling comes from the work of Lovaas (1967) and others who have taught children with autism to speak. -This therapy makes use of a large number of behavioral techniques, such as shaping, prompting, fading, and discrimination training, but the teacher's modeling of speech is indispensable at every stage of therapy. -The teacher repeatedly models the desired words and the child is reinforced for successful imitation. -Of course, many new behaviors besides speech can be taught through modeling. Modeling (along with other behavioral techniques) has been used to teach children with autism social skills, personal hygiene, and basic reading skills. -Modeling has been used for many different purposes, ranging from training computer skills to teaching parents how to handle their children's tantrums and aggressive behaviors. -In a technique known as behavioral skills training, modeling is used as a part of a larger program that may include verbal instruction, prompting, guided practice, and feedback. -Gunby, Carr, and Leblanc (2010) used behavior skills training to teach abduction-prevention skills to three boys with autism. -As part of the instruction component, the boys were taught to recite three simple rules about what to do if a stranger asks them to come with him: Say "no," run, tell (i.e., refuse the stranger's request, run to a safe place, and tell a familiar adult what happened). -The modeling of these behaviors was done both with a video and with live models. The boys were then asked to practice these behaviors with a stranger and a familiar adult, and they were given praise and corrective feedback. -They were later tested in realistic settings to determine how well they had learned the behaviors. -Other applications of behavior skills training have included teaching staff the correct way to give physical assistance to children with physical disabilities and teaching children to avoid playing with firearms. -As is typical in behavior modification programs, objective measures of the learners' behaviors before, during, and after training were obtained in all of these studies to ascertain the effectiveness of the training methods.

phobias

-The causes of phobias are complex and still not well understood; they appear to result from learning experiences combined with biological and hereditary factors. -Various studies have presented indirect evidence suggesting that phobias can be acquired vicariously; most of the studies showed that members of the same family frequently have similar fears. -Interviews with children who have dental phobias suggest that these fears are often learned from their parents. -During World War II, Grinker and Spiegel (1945) reported case studies of fighter pilots who developed phobias after observing a crewmate's fear reaction during or after a mission. -When individuals who suffer from phobias are asked about the origins of their phobias, a substantial number say that they acquired the phobia by watching someone else who was fearful of the same object or situation. -As you can see, evidence for the vicarious acquisition of phobias is based on correlational evidence, case studies, and retrospective reports, and this is not the strongest type of evidence. However, several experiments with animals have obtained more convincing evidence. -For example, Mineka, Davidson, Cook, and Kerr (1984) reported that monkeys rapidly developed a longlasting fear of snakes by observing another monkey's fearful reactions to a snake. In another study, rats acquired a fear of a tone from cage-mates that had previously been conditioned to fear the tone. Thus, in this case, the evidence for observational learning may actually be stronger for animals than for people.

participant modeling

-The model first performs a behavior related to the phobia and then the patient imitates the behavior of the model. -In each step of the treatment, the patient's involvement with the object of the phobia becomes more demanding.

mirror neurons

-What makes mirror neurons unique is that they fire both when an animal makes a certain movement and when the animal observes someone else make that movement. -They were discovered by accident while researchers were recording from individual neurons in a monkey's premotor cortex, an area of the brain involved in hand movement and grasping. -They found neurons that would fire when a monkey reached for a piece food, but also when the experimenter reached for the food. -Studies using brain-imaging techniques then identified areas of the human brain that act in a similar way—they become active both when the person makes a movement and when the person observes someone else make the same movement. -More recently, individual motor neurons were found in human patients during the course of brain surgery. -Mirror neurons have received a great deal of attention because brain researchers have speculated that they could be involved in a number of important human capabilities. -Because mirror neurons respond both when we act and when we see others act, they may help us to understand the actions, intentions, and feelings of other people. Therefore, they may be important for normal social interactions and communication. -Research on children and adults with autism spectrum disorders has found evidence that their mirror neurons may not function in the same ways as those of normal individuals. -The evidence is preliminary and incomplete, but if it corroborated it could help to explain why people with autism often have difficulties in communication and in understanding the intentions of others. -Not surprisingly, it has also been suggested that mirror neurons are important for observational learning and imitation—they may help to make the connection between seeing someone else perform some action and then being able to perform it ourselves. -If so, then the species of animals that are most capable of observational learning should be those that have well-developed mirror neuron systems. It will be interesting to see if future research with other species supports this hypothesis. -So far, almost all the research on motor neurons has been conducted with humans and other primates. -However, one study with sparrows found neurons in their brains that responded both when the birds sang a specific song and when they heard it.

true imitation

-a more advanced type of social learning that is reserved for cases that cannot be explained by simpler mechanisms such as social facilitation or stimulus enhancement -True imitation occurs when an animal imitates a behavior that it has never performed before, and when it is an unusual behavior pattern for that species, which probably would not have been learned if the animal did not observe another animal performing the behavior. -Kawai (1965) described several possible examples of true imitation observed in a troop of monkeys living on an island off the coast of Japan. -For example, when grains of wheat were spread along the beach, the monkeys would pick them out of the sand one by one and eat them. -However, one monkey learned to separate the wheat from the sand more efficiently by picking up a handful of the mixture and throwing it in the water. The sand would sink and the wheat would float, so it could be collected easily. -Soon many of the other monkeys of the troop were imitating this behavior. -Kawai reported that several other novel behaviors spread quickly through the troop as a result of observational learning, including washing the sand off sweet potatoes and bathing in the ocean (which the monkeys had never done until one pioneer took up this activity). -Examples of true imitation have also been seen in gorillas and orangutans. Orangutans in captivity have imitated many complex behaviors of their human caretakers, such as "sweeping and weeding paths, mixing ingredients for pancakes, tying up hammocks and riding in them, and washing dishes or laundry." -Researchers have reported examples of true imitation in rats, quail, and other species. With pigeons, at least one study reported an example of deferred imitation in which the birds performed a novel response they had observed half an hour earlier.

video self-modeling

-a variation of modeling that has become an increasingly popular technique used by behavior therapists -The goal of this technique is to increase the performance of desired behaviors by having clients watch themselves correctly perform these behaviors in a video. -For example, Dowrick and Raeburn (1995) used this technique with children with severe physical disabilities, such as cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy. -First, each child was asked to perform some practical skill that needed improvement, such as maintaining a good posture, walking, balancing, writing, or dressing. This behavior was video-recorded and included the therapist giving the child instructions on how to perform, encouragement, and, when necessary, assistance in completing the task. -Next, each child's video was edited to remove all examples of errors and inappropriate behaviors, as well as all segments in which the therapist gave the child assistance. What remained, therefore, was a video in which the child was seen performing the behavior correctly, with no help from anyone else. This is important, because the goal is to teach only correct, unassisted behaviors. -After the editing, the children watched themselves on the videos, which were shown to them six times over a 2-week period. -The researchers found substantial improvement in most of the children on the self-modeled tasks. -They also found that watching the video, not just performing the behaviors in front of a camera, was a crucial part of the treatment. -Video self-modeling has been used to teach better social and communication skills to children with autism spectrum disorders, to decrease stuttering in adults, to teach simple cooking skills to people with traumatic brain injuries, and to improve the walking skills and mobility of elderly patients. It is becoming an increasing common technique for teaching a variety of skills to both children and adults.

social facilitation

-a very simple form of social influence in which the behavior of one animal prompts similar behaviors from another animal, but the behavior is one that is already in the repertoire of the imitator -For instance, an animal may be stimulated to eat by the sight of other animals that are eating. -Similarly, animals may copy the fear reactions of another member of their species, as when one deer is startled and starts to run and other nearby deer start running as well. -Such examples represent imitation in its most primitive sense, because nothing new is learned: The animals already know how to perform these behaviors (eating, running); they are simply prompted to engage in these activities when they see other animals doing them.

stimulus enhancement

-another category of imitation in which the behavior of a model directs the attention of the learner to a particular stimulus or place in the environment -As a result, a response that might otherwise have been learned through trial and error is acquired more rapidly. -For instance, in a laboratory experiment, ravens were tested in pairs in which one raven (the observer) watched another raven (the model) playing with a particular toy. -Later, when the observer was alone, it was given a choice of five toys, including the one the model had played with. -If two ravens were unrelated, the observer did not show a preference for any toy, but if they were siblings, the observer tended to pick the toy that its sibling had played with. -Besides providing an example of stimulus enhancement, this study shows that animals may be selective in whom they imitate. -However, in other cases, stimulus enhancement has been found even when the model was not the same species as the learner. -Bullock and Neuringer (1977) found that pigeons could learn to produce a two-response chain (pecking two keys in a specific order) by observing a human hand demonstrate the appropriate sequence.

McClelland (1961)

-noted that folk tales and stories in children's readers from some societies emphasize the achievement of excellence, whereas those from other societies do not. -In an ingenious and extensive piece of research, McClelland had readers score the stories of different countries (which were disguised so that the country could not be identified) for achievement-related themes. -These stories had all been published during the 1920s. He also developed measures of economic growth in these countries that were based on increases in per capita income and per capita electrical use between 1925 and 1950. -McClelland found a significant correlation between the average level of achievement motivation depicted in a country's children's stories and its rate of economic growth during the next 25 years. -Of course, there is nothing in McClelland's research that implies that either achievement motivation or economic growth is desirable. The rapid economic growth of industrialized nations over the past century or so has brought with it the problems of toxic waste, acid rain, nuclear weapons, and other concerns. -What the results do suggest, however, is that the values a society emphasizes via its stories, legends, and heroes can have a substantial influence on the level of achievement motivation (and probably other characteristics) in its next generation.

Meltzoff (2005)

-proposed that the ability of infants to imitate is essential for their learning of language and other important life skills -This may well be true, but it does not necessarily mean that infants are born with a general ability to imitate the actions of others. -One hypothesis is that imitation of lip protrusion (and possibly a few other facial expressions) is an inborn fixed-action pattern, which is triggered when the infant sees someone else make the same gesture. -Other research has found little evidence for a general ability to imitate in young children. -Children of ages 1 to 2 years were taught to imitate an adult in performing a specific set of gestures. -The children were given toys or other rewards for successful imitation. -Once they learned to imitate these gestures, they were tested to see if they would imitate a new set of gestures. -The children showed very little tendency to imitate the new gestures. -The researchers showed that this failure to imitate was not due to limitations of the children's motor abilities. They concluded that these young children were not yet capable of imitating arbitrary new behaviors, only those that they had been specifically trained to imitate. -This research suggests that a general ability to imitate new behaviors does not appear until later in childhood.

_______ is a very simple form of social influence in which the behavior of one animal prompts similar behaviors from another animal, but the behavior is one that is already...

Social facilitation in the repertoire of the imitator

In much of their book, Bandura and Waters (1963) surveyed research findings that showed...

how the behavior of parents affects a child's personality development. -They presented research on such characteristics as dependency, aggressiveness, sexual preferences and behaviors, delinquency, and industriousness. -They suggested that there are two main ways a parent can shape a child's personality: by control of rewards and punishments and by serving as a model whom the child can imitate. -Bandura and Walters contended that to predict how upbringing will affect a child's personality, both of these factors must be taken into account. -They maintained that in some cases direct reinforcement and observational learning can work in concert; in other cases, they may work in opposite directions. -Bandura and Walters claimed that direct reinforcement and observational learning work together in shaping what we might call self-discipline and a high achievement motivation. -These terms encompass such characteristics as an individual's willingness to work and make sacrifices so as to obtain long-term goals, to set high standards for oneself and attempt to achieve them, and to be independent and self-reliant. -Bandura and Kupers (1964) conducted an experiment that illustrates how an adult model can influence a child's self-discipline in a situation that allowed the child to reinforce himself or herself for good (or perhaps not so good) behavior. -First, a child watched an adult play a bowling game in which the scores could range between 5 and 30. -For children in one group, the adult would reward himself by taking a candy from a bowl for every score of 20 or better. -For a second group, the adult was more lenient, rewarding himself for any score above 10. -As in most studies of this type, the adult left the room before the child began to play the game and the child was secretly observed. -The children tended to use the same criteria for rewarding themselves as those they had observed the adult use. -Children in a third group, who observed no model, tended to reward themselves no matter what score they obtained. -This study showed that children can learn to apply either strict or lenient standards of self-discipline by observing a model, and Bandura and Walters speculate that numerous learning experiences of a similar type must occur as children observe their parents' behaviors over a period of many years. -Of course, besides serving as models, parents may directly reinforce either strict or lenient standards of achievement and self-discipline in their children. -One study on 9- to 13-year-old children found that those who grew up in homes where there was a strong emphasis on learning and intellectual activities were more highly motivated to achieve academic success. Even at the college level, parents can play an important role in their children's levels of achievement. Ratelle, Larose, Guay, and Senécal (2005) found that college students' persistence and competence in a rigorous science program was related to the levels of support and involvement of their parents.

Bandura has maintained that the theory of generalized imitation, like the other theories of imitation, is...

inadequate. inadequate. His reasons can be illustrated by considering a famous experiment on the imitation of aggressive behaviors by 4-year-olds (Bandura, 1965). -The children participated in the experiment individually. -Each child first watched a short film (projected onto a TV screen) in which an adult performed four distinctive aggressive behaviors against a Bobo doll (a large inflated doll). -For each aggressive behavior, the adult spoke distinctive words. For example, in one segment, the adult sat on the doll and punched it in the face, while saying, "Pow, right in the nose, boom, boom." -Some of the children then saw the adult model being reinforced by another adult: He was given a soft drink, candies, and other snacks and was called a "strong champion." -Other children saw the model being punished for his aggressive behavior: The model was scolded for "picking on that clown," was spanked, and was warned not to act that way again. -For children in a third group, the film contained no consequences for the model's aggressive behavior. -Immediately after viewing the film, a child was brought into a room that contained a Bobo doll and many other toys. The child was encouraged to play with the toys and was left alone in the room, but was observed through a one-way mirror. -Many instances of aggressive behaviors against the Bobo doll were recorded, and most of these resembled those of the adult model in the film. -In many cases, the children's words were also similar to those used by the model. Boys exhibited significantly more aggression than girls. -So far, these results do not contradict the theory of generalized imitation, but Bandura claimed that two additional findings cannot be explained by this theory: -First, the consequences to the model made a difference; that is, children who saw the model being punished exhibited less imitation than children in the other two groups. According to Bandura, the theory of generalized imitation states that children (or adults) imitate others because imitation has been reinforced in the past, but it says nothing about how reinforcement or punishment of the model should affect the learner. -Second, in the final phase of Bandura's study, the experimenter offered to reward the child if he or she would imitate the behavior of the model in the film. With this incentive, children in all three groups produced large and equal amounts of aggressive behavior. -Bandura concluded that reinforcement is not necessary for the learning of new behaviors through observation, but that the expectation of reinforcement is essential for the performance of these new behaviors. -Bandura claimed that the theory of generalized imitation makes no provisions for distinguishing between the learning and the performance of imitative behaviors. -As an alternative to the theory of generalized imitation, Bandura (1969, 1986) proposed a theory of his own. Bandura's theory can definitely be classified as a cognitive theory, for it proposes several processes that can never be observed in an individual's behavior. -It states that there are four factors that determine whether imitative behavior will occur: attentional processes, retentional processes, motor reproductive processes, and incentive and motivational processes.

Learning by observation is the most...

sophisticated type of learning. habituation < classical conditioning < operant conditioning < learning by observation

Bandura's theory of imitation

states that there are four factors that determine whether imitative behavior will occur: 1. Attentional Processes! -The learner must pay attention to the appropriate features of the model's behavior if imitation is to occur. -A young girl may watch her mother make a bowl of cereal, but if she did not pay attention to where the sugar came from and how much to put in, she may be quite unsuccessful in her attempt at imitation. 2. Retentional Processes! -It is obvious that an individual must retain some of the information that is gained through observation if imitation is to occur at a later time. -Bandura states that rehearsal can be important here. Thus the little girl may say to herself, "First the cereal, then the milk, then the sugar." Notice that this information is stated in a fairly abstract way, and Bandura assumes that some abstraction of this type is indeed all that is remembered. Thus the child may not remember exactly where in the refrigerator the milk was, or exactly where on the table her mother placed the bowl, but such specific information is not usually necessary for successful imitation. -A study conducted with 14-month old infants supports Bandura's view that the information-retained memory is in a fairly abstract form, which might later be expressed in a variety of different overt behaviors. The infants watched a woman who was sitting at a table bend forward and press her forehead onto a translucent disk, which caused the disk to light up. For one group of infants ("hands-free"), the woman's hands were simply placed on the table, whereas for another group ("hands-occupied"), the woman pretended to be cold and was using both hands to wrap a blanket around her body. One week later, the infants were presented with the translucent disk on the table. Of the infants in the hands-free condition, 69% used their foreheads to turn on the light. Of those in the hands-occupied group, only 21% used their foreheads, and the rest of them used their hands to turn on the light. Apparently, these infants were able to reason that there was no need to use their foreheads if their hands were unoccupied, so they used their hands instead (which was easier and less awkward). -As the researchers put it, "79% of them chose not to imitate her because their own hands were free, presumably concluding that the head action was not the most rational.". Even at this early age, the infants showed the flexibility to take what they had learned through observation and apply it in a somewhat different (and more sensible) way. 3. Motor Reproductive Processes! -Of course, the learner must have the appropriate motor skills in order to imitate a model. In other words, the learner must be able to translate general knowledge ("Put a bowl on the table"; "Pour in some cereal") into a coordinated pattern of muscle movements. -In the examples of children making cereal or hitting a Bobo doll, this translation of knowledge into action poses no problem, because the children already possessed the required motor skills (handling objects, pouring, kicking, punching, etc.). -In other cases of observational learning, however, the motor reproductive processes must not be taken for granted. For example, a model may demonstrate slowly and in a step-by-step manner the sequence of movements involved in juggling three balls, and the learner may retain this information in an abstract form (i.e., he or she may be able to recite the necessary sequences) but may still be unable to produce the appropriate movements without extensive practice. Similarly, imitating behaviors such as doing a cartwheel, landing an airplane, or smoothly plastering a wall may be impossible because the observer lacks the necessary motor skills. 4. Incentive and Motivational Processes! -According to Bandura, the first three processes are all that are necessary for an individual to acquire the capability to perform some new behavior, but this capability will not be reflected in the learner's behavior without the appropriate incentive. -Bandura states that the individual must have an expectation that the performance of this new behavior will produce some type of reinforcement. -Bandura's (1965) study on aggressive behavior provided a clear example of the role of incentive. Children who saw the adult model being punished for his aggressive play with the Bobo doll presumably developed the expectation that such behavior would lead to unpleasant consequences, so they exhibited less imitation than the other groups of children. When the experimenter changed the expectations of the children by offering reinforcement if the children imitated the model, these children exhibited just as much imitation as the other two groups.

________: occurs when an animal imitates a behavior that it has never performed before, and when it is an unusual behavior pattern for that species, which probably would not have been learned if the animal did not observe another animal performing the behavior ________: a category of imitation in which the behavior of a model directs the attention of the learner to a particular stimulus or place in the environment ________: a very simple form of social influence in which the behavior of one animal prompts similar behaviors from another animal, but the behavior is one that is already in the repertoire of the imitator

true imitation stimulus enhancement social facilitation