Download 55 Cognitive Learning

Cognitive Learning
• Learning that depends on mental activity
that is not directly observable
• Involves such processes as attention,
expectation, thinking, and memory
Latent Learning and Cognitive
Maps
• Latent learning is learning that takes place
before the subject realizes it and is not
immediately reflected in behavior
• A cognitive map is latent learning stored
as a mental image
Insight and Learning Sets
• Insight is when learning seems to occur in
a sudden “flash” as elements of a situation
come together
• Learning sets refer to increasing
effectiveness at problem solving through
experience, i.e., organisms “learn how to
learn”
Bandura's Bobo doll
study (1961) indicated
that individuals
(children) learn through
imitating others who
receive rewards and
punishments.
Courtesy of Albert Bandura, Stanford University
Bandura's Experiments
Social Cognitive Theory
• Learning a behavior and performing it are not the same thing
• Tenet 1: Response consequences (such as rewards or
punishments) influence the likelihood that a person will perform a
particular behavior again in a given situation. Note that this principle
is also shared by classical behaviorists.
• Tenet 2: Humans can learn by observing others, in addition to
learning by participating in an act personally. Learning by observing
others is called vicarious learning. The concept of vicarious learning
is not one that would be subscribed to by classical behaviorists.
• Tenet 3: Individuals are most likely to model behavior observed by
others they identify with. Identification with others is a function of the
degree to which a person is perceived to be similar to one's self, in
addition to the degree of emotional attachment that is felt toward an
individual.
Learning by Observing
• The likelihood of acting on vicarious learning
occurs when we see the consequences of other
people’s behavior
• Vicarious reinforcement or vicarious punishment
affects the willingness of people to perform
behaviors they learned by watching others
• The person being watched is the model. Hence
modeling. (Live models and symbolic models)
Reprinted with permission from the American
Association for the Advancement of Science,
Subiaul et al., Science 305: 407-410 (2004)
© 2004 AAAS.
Mirror Neurons
Neuroscientists discovered mirror neurons in
the brains of animals and humans that are active
during observational learning.
Applications of Observational
Learning
Unfortunately,
Bandura’s studies
show that antisocial
models (family,
neighborhood or TV)
may have antisocial
effects.
Positive Observational Learning
Bob Daemmrich/ The Image Works
Fortunately, prosocial (positive, helpful) models
may have prosocial effects.
Learning by observation
begins early in life. This
14-month-old child
imitates the adult on TV
in pulling a toy apart.
Meltzoff, A.N. (1998). Imitation of televised models by infants.
Child Development, 59 1221-1229. Photos Courtesy of A.N. Meltzoff and M. Hanuk.
Imitation Onset
Cognitive Learning in
Nonhumans
• Nonhumans are capable of classical and
operant conditioning
• Nonhumans are also capable of latent
learning
• Research has also demonstrated that
animals are capable of observational
learning
Learning by Observation
©Herb Terrace
The monkey on the
right imitates the
monkey on the left in
touching the pictures in
a certain order to obtain
a reward.
© Herb Terrace
It is not justhumans,
that learn through
observing and imitating
others.