• Octopus and crab example

• Is imitation innate?
• Animal imitation?
• Thorndike: "No!"
• Puzzle box cats
• Subsequently: "Yes!"
• Successes and failures

• Reinforcement problem
• Epstein (1984)
• Model bird (MB)
• Experienced
• Observer bird (OB)
• Naïve
• Experiment
• Model trained to use object for reinforcement
• Ball (B), rope (R), key (K); five phases

• 1. OB right; B, R, K in left
• 2. OB right; B, R, K in right
• Baseline activity
• 3. MB in left, OB in right; B, R, K in left
• OB watches MB use objects for reinforcement
• 4. As above, but B, R, K added to right
• Will OB imitate MB?
• 5. MB removed, OB right; B, R, K in right
• Will OB use objects without model?

• Direct spontaneous imitation (phase 4)
• Delayed spontaneous imitation (phase 5)
• Importance of results
• Imitation not due to experience or reinforcement

• At what age can humans imitate?
• Innate or learned?
• Metzolff & Moore (1977)
• 12 to 21 day old infants
• Facial gestures: tongue protrusion, mouth open, lip protrusion

• Experimenter: 90 sec passive face (baseline)
• Infant shown gesture four times
• Imitation-test period
• Video taped and scored by "blind" judges
• Supports spontaneous imitation

• Supports spontaneous imitation

• Replication difficult
• Tongue protrusion elicited by other means
• Infants’ attention: general arousal?
• Infants’ responses not discrete: FAP?

• Pigeon argument
• Complex process, confounding variables
• Lack of visual feedback
• Evolutionary advantage
• By-product of visual tracking?
• Increases care-giving?
• Final points
• Form and function across species
• Phylogenetic and ontogenetic forms

• Miller and Dollard (1941)
• Observational learning is type of operant conditioning
• Three-term contingency
• Imitate if reinforced
• Don’t imitate if not reinforced

• Three steps:
• 1. Learner observes behaviour of model
• 2. Learner immediately copies response
• 3. Learner receives reinforcement
• First instance of imitation?
• Generalization

• Generalized theory
• Behaviourist
• Past experiences
• Bandura’s theory
• Cognitive
• Future expectations

• Bobo the Clown experiment
• Consequences of model’s behaviour
• Children offered reward for imitating
• Attentional processes
• Retentional processes
• Motor reproductive processes
• Incentive and motivational processes

• Rewardingness
• Authority
• Dominance
• Similarity
• Sincerity

• Uncertainty
• Sex
• Age

• Task uncertainty
• Task difficulty
• Presentation of model

• Bandura and Walters
• Classical and operant conditioning
• Observational learning

• Technological world
• Radio, television, music industry, internet
• Influence?
• Correlational studies
• Do not imply causation
• Third factor?

• Longitudinal studies
• Follow subjects over time
• Example: TV violence and aggression
• Experimental studies
• Control and experimental groups
• Contrived?
• Brief time period
• Field experiment studies
• Control and experimental groups
• More natural setting
• Difficult to design

• Aggression
• Decreased literary abilities
• Children’s novels
• Positive effects of TV?
• Classic example: Sesame Street
• Educational programming

• Vicarious acquisition
• Prevalence in humans?

• Systematic desensitization and flooding
• Modeling
• Used with the very young
• Sometimes more rapid
• May be better at generalization
• Three types of phobia reduction modeling
• 1. Graduated modeling
• 2. Symbolic modeling
• 3. Participant modeling

• A model can influence an observer
• Facilitate known response
• Teach new behaviours
• Reduce/eliminate undesirable behaviours

• Classic example:
• Cigarettes
• Development of modern advertising
• Targeted advertising campaigns

• Contrasting developmental stages theories
• Conservation of volume task
• Stages explanation
• Social learning explanation
• Authority explanation

• Societal values
• Cultural
• Observation necessary

URL: www.psych.ualberta.ca/~msnyder/p281/notes/t12.html
Page created: 12 Aug. 2002 --- Last modified: 5 June 2003