Learning and Performance

People can learn to do many things without actually doing them. Perhaps you have been on an airplane and learned how to put on a life jacket by observing the flight attendant's demonstration. You didn't have to put on the jacket to learn how to do so. The only way to verify that you have learned how to put on a life jacket would be to have you perform the behavior.

According to social learning theory, people may learn simply by observing a model. Consider the following illustration. Students in a keyboarding class may learn how to type capital letters by observing how the teacher strikes a letter key while simultaneously holding down the shift key. It is not necessary for students themselves to type capital letters to learn how to do so. In all likelihood, of course, the teacher would have students type capital letters to demonstrate by their perfor­mance that they have learned correctly.

The important point is that learning may take place without any observable response and without any reinforcement. In other words, even though the students may not do any typing at all or receive any form of reinforcement or reward from the teacher, they still may learn. The fact that people may learn without making an observable response and without being reinforced is a dominant principle in social learning theory.

Note that this principle is completely contrary to the view of behaviorists, who claim that a response can be learned only if it is observable and reinforced. On the other hand, note that this principle is consistent with the cognitive approach to learning. Cognitivists could easily account for students having learned to type capi­tal letters without actually typing. They would argue that changes occurred in the students' mental images and thinking about typing as a result of having observed the teacher type. The cognitive approach and social learning theory both account for learning in terms of cognitive changes.

The Role of Reinforcement in Social Learning Theory

Social learning theory, however, is related to the behavioral approach in that both approaches take reinforcement into account, although in different ways. Behavioral theory claims that behavior must be reinforced if learning is to oc­cur. Social learning theory claims that although reinforcement is not necessary for learning to occur, the use of reinforcement increases the likelihood that what has been learned will actually be performed.

In social learning theory, reinforcement serves a motivational role. A person is more likely to perform a newly learned response if the response has been reinforced than if it has not been. Furthermore, if the person modeling a particular kind of behavior is reinforced, chances are increased that the observer will also perform the behavior. This kind of reinforcement is called vicarious reinforcement. People are more likely to perform the behavior carried out by the model if they see the model being reinforced. Reinforcing the model serves the same function as reinforcing the learner in terms of increasing the probability that the learner will perform the ob­served behavior.

Just as reinforcing the model increases the chances that the learner will engage in the observed behavior, punishing the model decreases the chances. The conse­quences following a response determine whether the response is likely to occur in the future or not.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-11