3.9 Social, Cognitive, and Neurological Factors in Learning

Social learning theory, developed by Albert Bandura, says people learn by observing others. Observational learning means learning by watching, and modeling is the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior. The person being imitated is the model. You learned to tie your shoes, use slang and behave at a funeral largely by watching others.

In Bandura's Bobo doll studies in the early 1960s, children watched an adult either hit and kick an inflatable Bobo doll or play quietly. Children who saw the aggressive model were much more likely to copy the aggression, often using the same actions and words, when left alone with the doll. In later versions, children who saw the model rewarded imitated more, and those who saw the model punished imitated less.

That second finding shows vicarious conditioning: learning from the consequences that happen to someone else. You don't need to be fined yourself to learn not to park in a tow-away zone; seeing someone else's car towed teaches you.

We're more likely to imitate models who are similar to us, as well as models who are admired or successful. Imitation also depends on paying attention, remembering the behavior, being able to perform it and having a reason to.

Insight learning is the sudden realization of a problem's solution, without trial-and-error conditioning, reinforcement or a model to copy. It's the 'aha!' moment. Wolfgang Köhler studied chimpanzees who were trying to reach bananas hung out of reach. After failing, one chimp paused, then suddenly stacked boxes to climb or joined sticks to reach the fruit. The solution appeared all at once, which suggested the chimp had mentally reorganized the problem rather than gradually learning through rewards.

Latent learning is learning that happens without reinforcement and isn't shown until there's a reason to use it. Edward Tolman and his colleagues let three groups of rats run a maze. One group got food at the end every day, one never got food, and one got no food for the first 10 days and then got food starting on day 11. The third group's performance improved dramatically right after food was introduced, quickly matching or beating the group that was rewarded all along. They must have been learning the maze the whole time; they just had no reason to show it.

Tolman argued the rats had formed a cognitive map, a mental representation of the layout of their environment. You do the same thing as a passenger on a familiar route: you may never have driven it, but if you had to, you'd know the way.

Strict behaviorists focused only on observable stimuli, responses and consequences. Social, insight and latent learning showed that mental processes, such as attention, memory, expectations and understanding, are part of learning. These ideas also have real-world uses: concerns about media violence, the power of positive role models, and why practicing with a coach who demonstrates skills can work better than trial and error. Social learning theory later grew into social-cognitive theory of personality (4.5).