Unit 4 · Learning Theory · Reading 12 of 13
Bandura and the Bobo Doll
Before you read
Name a skill you learned mostly by watching someone else: a dance, a recipe, a move in a game. Did anyone reward you for learning it?
Words you'll own by the end
- Observational (social) learning: learning by watching others (models) and imitating them.
- Albert Bandura: the psychologist behind observational learning and the Bobo doll study.
- Vicarious reinforcement / punishment: seeing someone else rewarded or punished for a behavior.
- Prosocial behavior: kind, helpful actions.
- Mirror neurons: brain cells that fire both when we act and when we watch someone else act.
1. Learning without doing
Albert Bandura and others argued that, on top of classical and operant conditioning, much of what we learn comes from observational learning: watching models and imitating them. It's especially powerful when the model is someone we admire, someone with power or respect, or someone we identify with because we share a gender, race, or group.
A child watches his mom go down the slide and copies her, then gets the fun ride as a reward. One campus dog watched hundreds of students trade money for treats at a shop. Now it brings the shop owner a leaf every day, and the owner, amused, gives it a treat.
2. The Bobo doll study
In Bandura's famous early-1960s study, children watched a video of adults punching and kicking a Bobo doll, an inflatable clown that pops back up when hit. Then the children went into a room full of toys. Many promptly attacked Bobo, and they copied specific moves: pinning him down, hitting him with a hammer, tossing him in the air. Children in a control group who didn't see the video didn't act this way.
Check-in: Why did the control group matter in the Bobo doll study?
3. The four steps of observational learning
Bandura identified four things that have to happen:
Bandura's four factors
Attention
You have to notice the model and what they're doing. Scrolling past a tutorial doesn't count.
Retention
You have to remember it. Watch a video on serving a tennis ball, forget it, and you can't copy it.
Motor reproduction
You have to physically be able to do it. Performing the behavior is how we see that learning happened.
Reinforcement
You're more likely to do it if the model was rewarded (vicarious reinforcement), and less likely if the model was punished (vicarious punishment).
That last step was Bandura's big insight: you don't have to be rewarded or punished yourself. Watching what happens to others is enough to learn.
4. Do as I do
Bandura pushed back on "Do as I say, not as I do." Actions speak louder than words, especially for children. If a younger child watches an older sibling talk back to Mom and get his way, the younger child may start talking back too. But if a child sees the whole family doing acts of charity and kindness, they're more likely to start helping others. Modeling prosocial behavior works.
5. The brain connection
Mirror neurons (from the biological bases unit) fire both when we do something and when we watch someone else do it. They may be the biological basis for observational learning.
Try it: Vicarious reinforcement or vicarious punishment?
What did the observer see happen to the model?
Sam sees a classmate get detention for vaping, and decides not to vape.
Lena sees a teammate get playing time for diving after loose balls, and starts diving too.
A toddler watches his brother get candy for cleaning up, then starts picking up toys.
You see a coworker get yelled at for being late, and you start arriving early.
Am I ready for a pop quiz?
Check a box only if you can say the answer out loud without scrolling up.
Come back to your "before you read" question
The skill you learned by watching: walk it through attention, retention, reproduction, and reinforcement. Which step was hardest?