explain with suitable examples of four processes of observational learning.How does imitation help in observational learning
Answers
Observational learning is a type of social learning. In this the observer learns by observing the behaviour of others. He learns by associating with a social model like a parent, sibling, friend or teacher.
Observational learning involves four processes. They are attention, retention, initiation and motivation.
Attention: The observer pays attention to what is happening around him. 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 influence this process.
Retention or Memory: The process of learning depends on the observer's ability to code or structure the information and remember it. It is based on his capacity to rehearse the model's actions mentally or physically.
Initiation or Motor: The observer should be capable of performing the act physically or intellectually. In order to replicate the model's action the observer may need some skills which he has not yet acquired. For example, he may observe a circus juggler but may not be able to repeat his actions.
Motivation: A person does not produce learned behaviour until he is motivated to do so. Motivation can come from external reinforcement like a promise of reward or from the observation that the models are rewarded.
Some examples of observational learning are:
Children learn to participate in the community by observing their elders.
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.
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.
Role of imitation in learning
Imitation can help in learning. Infants 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. They are live, verbal and symbolic 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 example, a child can imitate the behaviour of someone he sees in a movie.
Ability to remember at a later time is known as retention. Initiation is the responding with an act.
Motivation is required to recognize the importance of something. Imitation occurs in observational learning when animals learn about behavior by observing the actions of the same species.
This helps animals to learn significantly.