Slides prepared by Mary Waterstreet, St. Ambrose University

Slides prepared by Mary Waterstreet, St. Ambrose University

Chapter 11

Observational Learning:

Watching, Listening, and Remembering

11.1

Behavioral Processes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2syxXPR7xY

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11.1 Behavioral Processes

• Learning by Copying

• Learning and Memory in Everyday Life— What Can a Child Learn from a Teletubby?

• Alternatives to Imitation

• Social Transmission of Information

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Learning by Copying

• Observational learning—learning new behavior from watching another demonstrate the action (also, social learning). Copying = doing what one observes another doing.Facebook memory

• In observational learning researchers cannot reliably predict learning outcome. Difficult to predict what is perceived.

Nothing compels observer to copy.

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Learning by Copying

• True imitation—copying that reproduces motor actions.

• Emulation—copying that replicates an outcome (goal) without reproducing the specific motor actions used to achieve the outcome.

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Bandura and Observational Learning

• Bandura and colleagues (1961): Will preschool children become more aggressive after observing aggressive adults? Adult acted aggressively toward Bobo doll.

Children imitated (modeled) what they saw.

Children were not rewarded for their actions or for their interactions with the Bobo doll.

Thus, similarities in actions did NOT result from instrumental conditioning.

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Scenes from Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment

Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1961) Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63, 575–582.

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Bandura and Observational Learning

• In Bandura study, children were provoked; denied toy immediately before test. Children who were NOT provoked (but observed adult

aggression) were less likely to copy.Meaning, in some cases viewing can inhibit, rather than

increase, aggressive behavior.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDtBz_1dkuk

• Findings: Viewing adult aggression strongly influences child behavior,

even without reward or punishment.

Leaning occurs during observation NOT imitation.

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True Imitation: Copying Actions

• Two-action test—technique to demonstrate imitation abilities by exposing naive animals to demonstrators who use different actions to achieve a single goal. Can identify true imitation.

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• Experiments with quail: Naive quail observed a demonstrator quail earn

food for lever pressing with its head (pecking) or feet (stepping).

Quail tended to imitate the specific actions they observed, illustrating true imitation.

11Adapted from Akins & Zentall, 1996.

Two-Action Test of True Imitation in Quail

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• Experiments with children and chimpanzees: Children and chimpanzees observed adult humans

use one of two techniques (poke or twist) to open a plastic box containing a reward.

Both children and chimpanzees tended to use the observed box-opening technique.

But children more likely to copy non-essential details; details not part of opening box.

Illustrates both chimps and children can truly imitate.

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Two-Action Test of True Imitation in Children and Chimpanzees

Adapted from Whiten et al., 1996.

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Emulation: Copying Goals

• Most evidence of emulation is seen through the two-action test. In box-opening task children more likely to replicate precise

actions.

Chimps more likely to emulate using their own opening methods.

• In experiments that replicated box-opening task with adult humans: Adults more likely to emulate than truly imitate opening box

to get reward (similar to chimps).

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Stimulus Matching: Copying Outcomes of Specific Actions

• Stimulus matching—imitation in which generated stimuli can be directly compared with observed stimuli.

• In vocal learning, use memory of sound to imitate sound with own vocal organs (e.g., speech or song learning). Many birds learn songs by imitation.

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• Template model of song learning—young birds easily learn songs similar to their species innate “template.” Three basic phases:

Memorization

Practice

Appropriate utilization

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• Some birds constrained to specific sound sequences; others (mynah birds, parrots) can precisely reproduce sounds of other species.

• Other examples of mammal vocal learning: Some dolphins can imitate

sounds.

Some humpback whales imitate whale songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6KWQYaaOJI

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Social Learning Theory

• Social learning theory—an individual’s past reinforcements will determine how that individual will act in any given situation. Explains learning through observation.

Imitation reveals such learning.

Basic premise = behavior learned without direct reinforcement or punishment.

Acquisition is not the same as performance.

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Social Learning Theory

• Bandura has identified four basic processes for observational learning: Attention to model.

Retention (memory of observation).

Ability to reproduce.

Motivation (imitation from vicarious reinforcement).Status of model

Similarity to model

Desirability of outcome or goal

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Learning and Memory in Everyday Life— What Can a Child Learn from a Teletubby?

• Advantages: children might model peaceful, happy actions. e.g., hugging, sharing

• Disadvantages: children might model infantile actions. e.g., nonsensical speech

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC1tikkotVU&feature=related

• A child’s previous behavior may best predict actions learned.

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Alternatives to Imitation

• Laughing is contagious!

• So is laughing a contagion? Contagion = innate tendency to react emotionally to visual or

acoustic stimuli that elicit similar response in other members of one’s species.

• Contagion may contribute to observational conditioning. Learning an emotional response after observing similar

responses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkB9uoBFbZY

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Classical Conditioning

through Contagion

Do

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Observational Conditioning in Blackbirds

Adapted from Shettleworth, 1998.

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Stimulus Enhancement

• Stimulus enhancement—one organism directs another’s attention to specific objects, events, or locations in an environment. May result in similar

actions that are not necessarily imitated actions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ddJc9a1aGQ

Getty Images/Imageworks

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Social Transmission of Information

• Social transmission of information— process by which an observer learns from others’ experiences. Books, videos, television, phones, computers,

etc., facilitate transmission of knowledge and culture in complex ways.

Simple forms of information transfer in animals (e.g., rats) provide a model for the basic processes involved.

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Learning through Social Conformity

• Social Conformity = tendency to adopt the behavior of the group. For example, rats learn food preferences from

smelling a demonstrator rat’s breath.

Fire alarm

• How might your family or friends influence your preferences?

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Social Transmission of Rats’ Food Preferences

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Active Instruction and Culture

• Active instruction or explanation is a powerful means to disseminate information to be learned.

• Examples: Humans teach about culture through explanation

(active instruction through speech).

Animals teach survival skills to their young.Non-human animal examples = rare.

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Effects of Violent Entertainment on Behavior

• There are no simple answers, as Bandura has been pointing out for many years.

• Models do not control others’ actions; there is choice, especially for adults.

• Nevertheless, a culture that values aggression provides aggressive models for imitation or emulation.

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Correlation between Television and Homicides in the United States

Adapted from Centerwall, 1992.

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11.1 Interim Summary

• Psychologists use “observational learning” to identify situations in which: Learner actively monitors events.

Later, learner chooses actions based on observations.

• Observational learning differs from classical and instrumental conditioning. No way to reliably predict what individuals exposed to

the actions of others will learn.

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• True imitation = copying that involves reproducing motor acts. Can be demonstrated using a two-action test.

Single operation can be performed in at least two ways.

• Seeing two organisms sequentially performing similar actions does not constitute evidence of imitation.

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• Emulation = copying that involves replicating an outcome without replicating specific motor acts. Involves using observation to acquire information

about the environment and about consequences of events within that environment.

Outcomes can be replicated independently of the specific actions that a model may have used to achieve those outcomes.

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• Seeing- and hearing-based imitation involve translation of sensory representations into motor acts that replicate observed events.

• The ability to either imitate or emulate ultimately depends on the availability of memories for facts or events.

• Many bird species learn songs, but among mammals, only humans and a few species of whales show similar abilities.

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• For social learning theorists, imitative learning = a special case of instrumental conditioning. Act of copying is either directly or indirectly

reinforced.

Similarity between model and observer increases the likelihood of copying.

Copying is more likely to be attempted if the observed outcome is desirable.

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• In contagion, observation of response reflexively evokes that same response.

• Stimulus enhancement increases the likelihood that an animal will be repeatedly exposed to particular stimuli (and associated consequences). Provides more opportunities for habituation, latent

learning, classical conditioning, or instrumental conditioning.

11.2

Brain Substrates

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11.2 Brain Substrates

• Mirror Neurons in the Cortex

• Song Learning in Bird Brains: Replicating Observed Events

• Unsolved Mysteries—Why Can’t Most Mammals Imitate Sounds?

• Hippocampal Encoding of Socially Transmitted Food Preferences

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How does the Brain Translate Observational Learning?

• Basic Problem: How to map observed events onto motor commands needed to generate same events? Visual hypothesis—memories for perceived acts

stored in visual cortical regions.

Direct-matching hypothesis—observing action automatically activates neural system required to perform the same act; also, stores memories for the act.

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Mirror Neurons in the Cortex

• Mirror neurons = neurons that respond during both visual observation and performance of the same action. Specific mirror neurons in monkeys (seeing/doing).

• Possible role in: Imitation and emulation

Perceptual-motor skill learning

Interpretation of actions

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• Indirect (non-invasive) measures show activity in human (and monkey) cortexes; they behave as if mirror neurons are present. Activity corresponds to motor activity for the original

specific event.

Human cortical networks respond similarly to either human OR monkey models; likewise for monkey networks.

Mirror neuron systems = basic system for imitation; no higher-level cognition required.

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Mirror Neurons in Human Cortex?

Adapted from Rizzolatti et al., 1996.

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• Cortical mirror systems may connect to our other neural systems.

• Might explain our cortical size and learning advantages we have over most other animals.

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Song Learning in Bird Brains: Replicating Observed Events

• Birds use the high vocal center (HVC) and robust nucleus of the archistriatum (RA) to produce songs. Neurons in the RA act like

mirror neurons.

• Use Area X and lateral magnocellular nucleus of the anterior neostriatum (LMAN) to form song skill memories.

Ada

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Song Learning in Bird Brains: Replicating Observed Events

• Songbirds’ vocal learning is limited to the songs of their own species.

• Clarifying the neural mechanisms for bird song learning facilitates understanding of both vocal and behavioral imitation.

Adapted from Brainard & Doupe, 2000.

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Unsolved Mysteries—Why Can’t Most Mammals Imitate Sounds?

• Humans and marine mammals, such as dolphins and humpback whales, can vocally imitate.

• Large cortices and cerebella may provide underlying neural substrates.

• Voluntary control of respiratory systems may be a key factor in vocal imitation.

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Hippocampal Encoding of Socially Transmitted Food Preferences

• In studies, observer rats exposed to food odor on demonstrator rat’s breath. With hippocampal damage, observer rats show

retrograde amnesia for socially-transmitted food preferences.

• Studies of observer rats with damaged basal forebrain neurons (modulate hippocampus) show similar amnesia.

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Hippocampal Encoding of Socially Transmitted Food Preferences

• Studies of observer rats with damage to their basal forebrain cholinergic neurons (modulate cortical activity) have anterograde amnesia.

• Thus, studies show that (in rats) hippocampus and basal forebrain are necessary for socially transmitted food preferences.

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• Before any action can be imitated, it must be recognized. Mirror neurons fire the same way when a monkey

performs an action and when it sees another monkey performing that action.

• Neuroimaging studies correlate activation in cortical areas where mirror neurons are likely to be found with performance or observation of particular actions.

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• Many of the systems involved in performing a skill may also be involved in learning that skill through observation.

• Most neural-firing changes observed in birds’ song-learning circuit occur during practice.

• Genetic predispositions suggest that birds’ vocal imitation is more constrained than mammals’ behavioral imitation.

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• Memories that rats form based on socially transmitted information about foods depend on the hippocampus and basal forebrain.

11.3

Clinical Perspectives

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11.3 Clinical Perspectives

• Imitation in Autistic Individuals

• Effects of Frontal Lobe Lesions on Imitation

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Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome

• Autism—developmental disorder, affects behavior and communication, such as: Language delay

Self-stimulation

Echolalia (immediate vocal imitation of words or phrases)Can imitate sound; difficulty imitating actions.

• Asperger’s syndrome = mild form of autism, with intact intellect and language ability, but social deficits. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAfWfsop1e0

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Imitation in Autistic Individuals

• Autistic children show impairments in action imitation from early age. Especially deficits perspective-taking (they recreate what is

seen, not action that produced outcome).

• In studies with two-action (box-opening) task: Younger autistic children had abnormal imitative responses.

Were compared to older autistic children (who imitated model’s actions normally).

Suggests a neuro-developmental delay.

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Imitation in Autistic Individuals

• In studies with do-as-I-do task: Autistic children successfully imitated simple

actions (e.g., drinking).

Impaired imitation for sequences of actions.Problem linking observed actions to those

that can be performed.

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Brain Impairment in Autistic Individuals

• Anatomical differences in brain structures may affect subset of mirror neuron circuits. Differences in size.

Decrease in activity-related blood circulation in temporal lobes.

Abnormal patterns of cortical activation.

• Abnormal processing in cerebellum and hippocampus may contribute to imitative deficits.

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Imitation Studies and Asperger’s

• Circuits near mirror neuron system, as well as patterns of activation, abnormal in individuals with Asperger’s.

• In studies with do-as-I-do task: Magnetoencephalograph (MEG) readings showed

delayed and slowed cortical activation, compared to control group.

Asperger’s patients imitated facial expressions.But, imitation started later, took longer.

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Asperger’s Patients Show Slower Responses When Imitating Facial Expressions

Adapted from Nishitani, Avikainen, & Hari, 2004; Nishitani, N., Avikainen, S., & Hari, R. (2004). Abnormal imitation-related cortical activation sequences in Asperger’s syndrome. Annals of Neurology, 55(4), 558–562.

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Effects of Frontal-Lobe Lesions on Imitation

• Are the neural mechanisms involved in distinguishing self-generated actions from externally-triggered actions impaired in patients with frontal lobe lesions?

• Voluntary control of imitation may require more circuitry than most mammals possess.

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Effects of Frontal-Lobe Lesions on Imitation

• Patients with frontal lobe lesions may imitate observed responses unintentionally. Also, difficulty imitating intentional responses.

• In studies with finger-movement task, patients more likely to mistakenly imitate a finger movement inconsistent with a movement instructed by a number.

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Spontaneous Imitation Induced by Frontal Lobe Damage

Adapted from Brass, Derrfuss, Matthes-von Cramon, & von Cramon, 2003; Brass, M., Derrfuss, J., Matthes-von Cramon, G., & von Cramon, D. Y. (2003). Imitative response tendencies in patients with frontal brain lesions. Neuropsychology, 17(2), 265–271.

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• Autistic individuals may repeat words or phrases immediately after hearing them spoken (echolalia). Requires vocal imitation abilities.

• However, autistic children actually seem less able to learn from imitation than children without autism.

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• Patients with frontal lobe lesions tend to imitate observed actions automatically. But, have difficulty imitating actions when

instructed to do so.

Similar to individuals with autism.

Documents

Slides prepared by Mary Waterstreet, St. Ambrose University