Erick Dominguez
0169784
Assignment Three
Brief answers, please, that address the questions.
#1. Dollard and Miller first conceived of the concept of social
learning theory in the 1940s. What are some of the attributes
of that concept?
If humans were to learn a particular behavior, then that
particular behavior would be learned through clear observations.
By imitating these observed actions the individual would solidify
that learned action and would be rewarded with positive
reinforcement (Miller & Dollard, 1941).
#2. Initially, Albert Bandura was schooled in the learning
theory that we call behaviorism. The salient feature of
behaviorism when Bandura received his doctoral degree at
the University of Iowa in 1952 was that all learning occurred
by either “classical conditioning” (Pavlov), or “operant
conditioning” (Skinner).Bandura built upon the concept of
social learning theory to modify behaviorism and create his
own theory of how people learn. A critical concept of
Bandura’s new theory was the concept of vicarious
reinforcement. What is that concept and how did it break
from traditional behavioristic learning theory?
Vicarious reinforcement is characterized by changes in the
behavior of an observer as function of witnessing reinforcing
stimuli administered to a performer.
#3. Bandura then used the concept of vicarious
reinforcement to create the concept of observational
learning. What are the four components of observational
learning, and how does learning occur in Bandura’s model?
The four components of observational learning are: attention,
retention, motor reproduction, and motivation. Also known as
modeling or imitation, observational learning is the process of
learning that occurs when an individual observes and then
imitates another’s behavior.
#4. Classical behaviorism saw no need to acknowledge
any type of cognitive processes occurring inside the brain.
Bandura stressed that there must be some cognitive
processes occurring in the learner’s brain if more advanced
types of learning are to occur. What are a couple of factors
that Bandura said would be important in his observational
learning process?
After modeling stimuli have been coded into images or words for
memory representation they function as mediators for response
retrival and reproduction. (Bandura 1969)
#5. How could we apply observational learning (and its
subcomponent, vicarious reinforcement) to our own
professional endeavors if we were charged with designing a
generic instructional system?
Maybe it would be a good idea to expose the people that we
would like to reach with the desired behavior. The theory is
sound. If the behavior is positively reinforced, then maybe
some learning will take place.
Bonus question.
Based upon what you know at this point
about Bandura’s theory of social learning, what might a
weakness in this model be?