1. Explain with suitable examples of four processes of observational learning.
How does imitation help in observational learning.
Answers
Imitation might be the sincerest type of honeyed words for grown-ups, however, for babies, it's their principal apparatus for learning. As famous human watchers, babies frequently watch others exhibit how to get things done and after that duplicate those body developments.
Observational learning has been a part of the human experience for quite a while, yet it wasn't until fairly as of late that therapists started to analyze this wonder nearly with an end goal to comprehend it better.
Attention
Retention
Motor Reproduction
Reinforcement
These four ideas utilized as a part of succession enable living beings to secure the capacity to take part in new, now and again mind-boggling, practices essentially through observation.
Observational learning is a type of social learning in which an observer learns by observing the behaviour of a social model like a parent, sibling, friend or teacher.
The four processes involved in observational learning are attention, retention, initiation and motivation.
Attention: The person pays attention to what is happening around him. This process is influenced by the nature of the model like how much a person likes or identifies with the model, and the nature of the observer like the observer's level of emotional arousal or expectations.
Retention or Memory: Learning depends on the observer's ability to code or structure the information and remember it. It is based on the learner's capacity to rehearse the model's actions mentally or physically.
Initiation or Motor: The learner should be capable of performing the act physically or intellectually. To replicate the model's action the observer may need some skills which he has not yet acquired. For instance, he may observe a circus juggler but may not be able to repeat his actions.
Motivation: An observer does not produce learned behaviour until he is motivated to do so. He can be motivated by an external reinforcement like a promise of reward or from the observation that the models are rewarded.
Examples of observational learning:
Children learn to participate in the community by observing their elders.
In the Bobo doll experiment conducted by Bandura showed that one group of children placed in an aggressive environment also acted aggressively while the control group and other group place in a passive role model environment did not show any signs of aggression.
An example for learning when there is motivation can be seen from an experiment in which the girls aged 11 to 14 performed better on a motor performance task when it was demonstrated by a high-status cheerleader instead of a low-status model.
Role of imitation in learning
Imitation can help in learning. Babies can imitate simple facial expressions and actions by imitation. Around the age of two they can acquire social and personal skills by imitating a social model.
Players can imitate the actions of skilled players and become adept in the game. Many other skills can be acquired by imitating the proficient people in different fields.
There are three kinds of models:
Live model - A live model may demonstrate a behaviour personally which the observer can imitate. For example, yoga students can imitate the correct stance and movement of the yoga teacher.
Verbal model - The behaviour may be explained or described by a verbal instructional model. For example a coach may tell his young players how to kick the ball with the side of the foot instead of the toe.
Symbolic model - A symbolic model can be a fictional character or a real person who demonstrates behaviour in movies, books, television shows, internet sources and video games. For instance, a child can imitate the behaviour demonstrated by someone in a movie.