Transcript Slide 1

Chapter 12:
Observational Learning, Language,
and Rule-Governed Behavior
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Observational Learning
• The behavior of a model is witnessed by an
observer, and the observer’s behavior is
subsequently altered.
• Observational learning is often referred to as
social learning.
• In this way, we learn a behavior simply by
watching others perform it.
• This type of learning can occur without our even
being aware that our behavior has been
influenced in this way.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Contagious Behavior
• a more-or-less instinctive or reflexive behavior
triggered by the occurrence of the same
behavior in another individual.
• Example:
– You yawn. One by one, each of your classmates also
yawn.
– One startled duck gets the entire flock started.
– Laugh tracks in TV shows urge us to laugh.
– We will orient ourselves towards the direction others
are looking.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Stimulus Enhancement
• the probability of a behavior is changed because an
individual’s attention is drawn to a particular item or
location by the behavior of another individual.
• Example:
– You notice a candy bowl in the waiting room after
a girl comes in and notices it.
• It is particularly effective for increasing the
probability of a behavior associated with eating,
drinking, or mating.
• Animals will often use scent marking at food sites.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Observational Learning in Classical
Conditioning
• Vicarious emotional conditioning is classically
conditioning of emotional responses that result from
seeing those emotional responses exhibited by others.
• Expressions of fear in others may act as unconditioned
stimuli (US) that elicit the emotion of fear in others.
• Example:
Jellyfish: Look of fear in others  Fear in oneself
NS
US
UR
Jellyfish  Fear in oneself
CS
CR
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Higher Order Conditioning
• The emotional reactions of others may serve as
conditioned stimuli (CSs) rather than USs.
• Example:
Look of fear in others: Frightening events  Fear in oneself
NS1
US
UR
Look of fear in others  Fear in oneself
CS1
CR
Jellyfish: Look of fear in others  Fear in oneself
NS2
CS1
CR
Jellyfish  Fear in oneself
CS2
CR
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Is fear in others a US or a CS?
• Thus, with respect to fear conditioning, the look
of fear in others may function as either a US or a
CS.
• It is also possible that both processes are
involved, and they may even combine to
produce a stronger fear reaction.
• Higher-order conditioning no doubt plays a
major role in the conditioning of other, subtler
emotions.
• Example:
– Pleasant emotions after seeing others smile.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Observational Learning in Operant
Conditioning
• Acquisition through observational learning
first requires that the observer pay
attention to the behavior of the model.
• What makes us pay attention?
– Consequences of the model’s behavior.
– Reinforcement received for the behavior of
attending to a model.
– Sufficient skills to benefit from the modeling.
– Personal characteristics of a model.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Performing the Behavior
• You can acquire information about a behavior
without ever translating that into performance.
• We are more likely (or less likely) to perform a
modeled behavior when we have observed the
model experience reinforcement (or
punishment).
• Example:
– A fragrance commercial depicts a woman as highly
attractive when she is wearing the fragrance.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Performing the Behavior, continued
• We are more (or less) likely to perform a modeled
behavior when we ourselves will experience
reinforcement (or punishment).
• Example:
– If you tell a joke and get a good laugh, you will likely tell it
again.
• Our history of reinforcement and punishment
teaches us when it is appropriate to perform
behaviors that have been modeled by others.
• Example:
– Smoking and swearing.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
True Imitation
• form of observational learning that involves the
close duplication of a novel behavior.
• Example:
– Chelsea imitates another woman’s flirting behavior to
get into a club.
• Children have a strong tendency to imitate.
• Generalized imitation is a tendency to imitate a
new modeled behavior with no specific
reinforcement for doing so.
• This is important for teaching children with
developmental delays.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Can Animals Imitate?
• There has been considerable debate.
• Most studies have examined the ability of
animals to solve novel problems.
• Example:
– The monkey must obtain food locked away in
a box.
• The animals do not copy the actions of the
model exactly.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Can Animals Imitate? continued
• Simple stimulus enhancement can result in a
duplication of behavior that looks a lot like
imitation.
• Example:
– Kitten following its mother’s behavior.
• Some researchers believe at least some animals
are capable of true imitation.
• Examples:
– Birds & Great Apes
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Can Animals Imitate? continued
• Some argue that past research has utilized
inappropriate criteria for judging imitative ability
in animals.
• Example:
– Adults performed similarly to chimpanzees when
given the same test.
• Researchers have uncovered anecdotal
evidence.
• Example:
– In one camp, orangutans regularly copied the
complex actions of the humans.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Social Learning and Aggression
• Bandura is well known for his “Bobo doll studies” on
aggression.
• The research involved various types of models, various
forms of demonstrated aggression, and children of
varying ages.
• Children who observed a model behaving aggressively
toward the Bobo doll tended to demonstrate true
imitation of the model’s aggressive behavior.
• The effect was even stronger if the child had observed
reinforcement of the adult’s aggression.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Social Learning and Media
Violence
• Filmed violence was as effective as live violence.
• There has been a substantial change in children’s
exposure to violent media.
• The amount of violent media viewed in childhood is
significantly correlated with aggressive and antisocial
behavior 10 years later.
• The amount of television watched in childhood is
positively correlated with amount of aggressive or violent
behavior toward others.
• Males are more likely to express the effects of exposure
to violence, but females who are exposed to violence
may be more likely to be victims of violence.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Language
• Whether written, spoken, or symbolic, we
use it to communicate everything—
meaning, motives, feelings, and beliefs.
• Many animal species have evolved
complex communication systems of their
own.
• Example:
– Alarm calling of the vervet monkeys.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Characteristics of Language
• Reference is the use of arbitrary symbols to
symbolically refer to objects that exist in the
world.
• Grammar is simply a set of rules that control the
meaning of a string of words.
• Productivity is the infinite number of expressions
that can be generated to express novel or
creative ideas.
• Situational freedom means that it can be used in
a variety of contexts and is not fixed to a
particular situation.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Can Animals “Talk?”
• Research has focused on teaching great apes to
talk to us.
• The first researchers tried to train chimps to
speak by raising infant chimps in a home
environment (cross-fostering).
• Even though the chimpanzees thrived in the
home environment, they never learned to talk.
• “Speaking” is not something that chimps do
naturally.
• Viki had to tortuously manipulate her mouth with
her hand.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Sign Language Experiments
• Chimps lacked the vocal apparatus to produce
comprehensible speech.
• The next approach was to teach chimpanzees gestures.
• Experimenters conducted cross-fostering studies on
chimps’ ability to learn ASL.
• Food rewards seemed to focus the chimps on producing
the signs rather than on communicating with the
researchers spontaneously.
• They were capable of reference, but it is unclear if they
exhibited grammar, productivity, and situational freedom.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Artificial Language Experiments
• The next series of experiments were conducted
in laboratory situations, using visual symbols.
• The chimps that learned Yerkish could respond
to questions and ask for objects.
• The chimps mastered reference but is it unclear
if they could use grammar.
• The chimps did not have much to talk about
except obtaining food.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Language Training for Other
Animals
• Parrots, gorillas and dolphins have relatively
complex brains and are social animals.
• Researchers have been training dolphins to use
a symbolic language.
• They have learned a vocabulary of symbols—
ball, pipe, surfboard, spit, fetch, bottom, and so
on—that refer to objects and actions.
• California sea lions have also learned symbolic
gestures and can respond accurately to threeword sentences.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Rule-Governed Behavior
• A rule is a statement telling us that in a certain
setting, if we perform a certain behavior, then a
certain consequence will follow.
• Examples:
– “If you drive through a red light, you will get a ticket”;
– “If you study hard throughout the semester, you will
get a good grade”; and
– “If you are pleasant to others, they will be pleasant to
you”.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Rule-Governed Behavior,
continued
• Rules (or instructions) are extremely
useful for rapidly establishing appropriate
patterns of behavior.
• Example:
– Teaching a person to press a button to earn
money whenever a light is turned on.
• Parents devote considerable time to
training young children to follow the rules.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Disadvantages of Rule-Governed
Behavior
• Rule-governed behaviors are often less efficient
than behavior that has been directly shaped by
natural contingencies.
• Example:
– Learning to play golf from a book or practice.
• Rule-governed behaviors are sometimes
surprisingly insensitive to the actual
contingencies of reinforcement.
• Example:
– Human participants who are told they can earn
money by pressing a button press too often.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Personal Rules in Self-Regulation
• verbal descriptions of contingencies that
we present to ourselves to influence our
behavior.
• Say–do correspondence occurs when
there is a close match between what we
say we are going to do and what we
actually do at a later time.
• Parents play a critical role in the
development of this correspondence.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Effective Use of Personal Rules
• Personal rules are most effective when they establish a
“bright boundary” between acceptable and unacceptable
behavior.
• We are more likely to succeed when the rule specifically
sets out the conditions under which it has been obeyed
or violated.
• Example:
– “I will study from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. this evening” rather than
“I will study today.”
• Personal process rules that specify when, where, and
how a goal is to be accomplished can significantly affect
the probability of accomplishing the goal.
• Research has supported this approach.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Summary
• In observational learning, an observer’s behavior
is altered as a result of socially interacting with
or observing the behavior of a model.
• Two simple forms are contagious behavior and
stimulus enhancement.
• In classical conditioning of observational
learning, the emotional cues exhibited by a
model serve as CSs that elicit vicarious
emotional responses.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Summary, continued
• In operant conditioning of observational learning,
the observer must acquire information from the
model.
• Such acquisition depends on
– the consequences of the model’s behavior,
– the personal characteristics of the model,
– whether the observer is capable of understanding and
duplicating the modeled behavior, and
– whether the observer is explicitly reinforced for
attending to the modeled behavior.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Summary, continued
• Translating acquired knowledge into
performance depends on whether the
observer’s performance of the behavior is
reinforced or punished.
• Animals learn through observation but
appear to be unable to truly imitate.
• Examples of imitation can often be
explained as examples of stimulus
enhancement.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Summary, continued
• Bandura initially warned of the power of
social learning of violent behavior in his
classic “Bobodoll studies.”
• More recent evidence suggests that
exposure to media violence increases the
likelihood that a person will behave
violently, or perhaps become a victim of
violence.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Summary, continued
• Defining characteristics of language include
reference, grammar, situational freedom, and
productivity.
• Research programs have attempted to teach
animals a human-like language.
• Some animals can learn to use symbols to refer
to objects and actions.
• The research has also shown some evidence of
grammatical ability.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Summary, continued
• A rule is a verbal description of a contingency, and
behavior that is generated as a result of such rules is
known as rule-governed behavior.
• Rules allow us to learn about contingencies without
having to directly experience those contingencies.
• Rule-governed behavior is often less efficient than
behavior that has been shaped by actual contingencies.
• It is sometimes surprisingly insensitive to contingencies.
• A personal rule (or self-instruction) is a description of a
contingency that we verbalize to ourselves to influence
our own behavior.
Introduction to Learning and Behavior, 3e
by Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk, and P. Lynne Honey
Copyright © 2009 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.