Mrs.

SADAF YASMIN, Lecturer Psychology, Sociology & English [03335611369]

Learning Approach

 Main assumptions of the learning approach:

 conditioning helps to explain changes in behaviour

 social learning helps to explain changes in behaviour.

Bandura et al. (aggression)

 Title: Transmission of Aggression Through Imitation of Aggressive Models.

 Year: 1961

 Psychology being investigated:

 Social Learning Theory: social behaviour is learned primarily by observing and imitating
others. It is “learning by proxy”. The four components to it are:

 Attention: Observers must pay attention to behaviour of the model. The model must
have some feature that attracts the observer.

 Retention: Observers must store the behaviour in their long-term memory so that the
information can be used again (when the observer wants to imitate the behaviour).

 Reproduction: Observers must feel capable of imitating the retained, observed

behaviour.

 Motivation: If observers experience vicarious reinforcement, they are more likely to

imitate the behaviour. This is when the model has been rewarded for performing the
observed behaviour. Vicarious punishment can also happen: the role model is punished
for the observed behaviour, so is less likely to imitate it.

 Background

 Learning behaviour by imitating others is called observational learning.

 Several studies had demonstrated that children are influenced by witnessing adult
behaviour in the same situation and in the presence of the adult who modelled the
behaviour.

 This study is concerned with learning gender-specific behaviours.

 Aims

 Overall aim: To investigate observational learning of aggression.

 Specific aims:

 To see whether children would reproduce aggressive behaviour when the model was no
longer present.

 To look for gender differences in the learning of aggression.

 Mrs. SADAF YASMIN, Lecturer Psychology, Sociology & English [03335611369]

 Procedure

 Research Method: Laboratory experiment and Observations

 Experimental Design: Independent groups, Matched pairs design

 IV: (1) behaviour of the model – aggressive or non-aggressive (2) sex of the model (3) sex
of the child

 DV: amount of behaviour observed in 8 categories

 Sample: 72 participants; 36 boys and 36 girls from the Stanford University Nursery
School. Their ages ranged from 37 months to 69 months with a mean age of 52 months.
2 adults, a male and a female served as the role models in the experiment. One female
experimenter conducted the study for all 72 participants.

 Sampling Technique: Opportunity Sampling

 Participants were divided into 8 experimental groups or 6 children each and one control
group consisting 24 participants who watched no model.

 Children in each condition were matched for their levels of physical aggression, verbal
aggression, aggression towards inanimate objects and aggressive inhibition.

 51 participants were rated independently on a four five-point rating scale by the

experimenter and a nursery teacher. A very good agreement of 0.89 was achieved.;

EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS SEX OF CHILD sex of model TYPE OF BEHAVIOUR

1 Male Male AGGRESSIVE

2 Female Female AGGRESSIVE

3 Male Female AGGRESSIVE

4 Female Male AGGRESSIVE

5 Male Male NON-AGGRESSIVE

6 Female Female NON-AGGRESSIVE

7 Male Female NON- AGGRESSIVE

8 Female Male NON-AGGRESSIVE

 Modelling the Behaviour

 Mrs. SADAF YASMIN, Lecturer Psychology, Sociology & English [03335611369]

 Each child was brought individually to a play room by the experimenter. She then invited
the model who was outside the room.

 The experimenter took the child to one corner of the room which was supposed to be
their play area. She demonstrated how the child could design picture with potato prints
and the stickers provided.

 The experimenter then escorted the model to the opposite corner of the room which
contained a small table and chair, a tinker toy set, a mallet and a 5-foot inflated Bobo
doll. She explained that these were the materials provided for the model to play with
and then left.

 In the non-aggressive condition, the model assembled the tinker toys in a quiet subdued
manner totally ignoring the Bobo doll.

 In the aggressive condition, the model began assembling the tinker toys but after a
minute he turned to the Bobo and played with it.

 The model punched the Bobo, sat on it and punched it repeatedly, hit it with a mallet on
the head and aggressive kicked it about in the room.

 The model also included verbal aggression such as, “sock him in the nose,” “Pow,”
“throw him in the air” and 2 non-aggressive comments “he keeps coming back for more”
and “he sure is a tough fella”.

 This lasted for about 10 minutes

 Aggression Arousal

 This was included for two reasons: (1) observation of aggressive behaviour exhibited by
others tends to reduce the probability of aggression on the part of the observer (2) in
order to instigate or annoy the children.

 The participants were taken to a different room with some very attractive toys.

 The attractive toys included a fire-engine, a locomotive, a jet fighter plane, a cable car, a
colourful spinning top, and a doll set complete with wardrobe, doll carriage, and baby
crib.

 They were allowed to play with them for 2 minutes before the experimenter stopped
them and said that they were reserved for other children.

 Testing for Delayed Imitation

 Children were taking into the experimental room which contained a variety of toys
including aggressive and non-aggressive toys.

 The aggressive toys were a 3-foot tall inflatable Bobo doll, a mallet and peg board, two
dart guns and a tether ball with a face painted on it which hung from the ceiling.
 Mrs. SADAF YASMIN, Lecturer Psychology, Sociology & English [03335611369]

 The non-aggressive toys included a tea set, crayons and colouring paper, a ball, two
dolls, three bears, cars, trucks, and plastic farm animals.

 The toys were placed in a fixed manner.

 Children were observed playing for the next 20 minutes.

 2 more observers (the models) watched the child play and had an inter-rater reliability of
0.90

 3 types of aggression were recorded: (1) imitative aggression (physical and verbal) (2)
non-imitative aggression (3) partially imitative aggression.

 Results

 There was a significant difference in levels of imitative aggression between the group
that witnessed aggressive behaviour and the other two groups.

 There was a significant difference in levels of imitative physical and verbal aggression.

 Significantly more non-aggressive play was recorded in the non-aggressive model

condition.
 Children who had witnessed an aggressive model were significantly more aggressive
themselves.

 Overall, very little difference was present between aggression in the control group and
that in the non-aggressive modelling condition.

 Boys were significantly more likely to imitate male aggressive models.

 Boys were significantly more physically aggressive then girls. Girls were slightly more
verbally aggressive.

 Conclusions

 Witnessing aggression in a model can be enough to produce aggression by an observer.

 Children selectively imitate gender-specific behaviours.

 Ethical Issues

 Children were exposed to aggressive behaviour and were not protected.

 Informed consent was taken from the nursery teacher.

 Strengths

 The study has high levels of standardization and hence a higher reliability.

 The study has many controls and this increases its validity.

 There was a high inter-observer/ inter-rater reliability.

 Low risk of demand characteristics.

 Mrs. SADAF YASMIN, Lecturer Psychology, Sociology & English [03335611369]

 Using a matched pairs design reduced the effects of participant variable.

 Use of quantitative data allows for easier statistical analyses.

 Weaknesses

 The study lacks ecological validity and mundane realism.

 Issues and Debates

 Application to everyday life: can be useful to advertising agencies.

 Individual and Situational explanation: this study supports the situational side of the
debate as the situation that the children found themselves in caused the imitated
aggressive behaviour.

 Nature versus Nurture: this supports the nurture side of the debate as the environment
they found themselves in caused the imitated aggressive behaviour.

 The use of children: less susceptible to demand characteristics however could become
more aggressive after this study.

Saavedra and Silverman (button phobia)

 Title: Case Study: Disgust and a Specific Phobia of Buttons.

 Year: 2002

 Psychology being investigated:

 Evaluative learning is a form of classical conditioning in which a person comes to

perceive or “evaluate” a previously neutral object negatively.

 It does not depend on the individual expecting or being aware of the association
between the neutral object and the negative outcome.

 An individual may negatively evaluate a specific object or event without anticipating the
threat of an objective contaminant.

 This elicits a feeling of disgust rather than fear.

 Background

 Phobia: a persistent and unreasonable fear of an object. The fear is disproportionate to

the danger posed and leads to avoidance of the object.

 Fear: an unpleasant emotion caused by an organism’s defensive response to an

imminent threat

 Disgust: a feeling of revulsion or disapproval aroused by something unpleasant or

offensive.

 The role of disgust within phobias has received very little attention.
 Mrs. SADAF YASMIN, Lecturer Psychology, Sociology & English [03335611369]

 Disgust could interact with the fear of a phobic stimulus produces, to increase avoidance
of that stimulus.

 Disgust has been hypothesized as a concurrent emotion that in interaction with fear may
result in increased avoidance behaviour.

 Aims

 To investigate the cause of button phobia in a child.

 To attempt to treat a child’s phobia via targeting both disgust and fear responses.

 Procedure

 Research Method: Case Study, Observations and Questionnaires

 Quantitative data: Distress ratings and Severity ratings

 Qualitative data: Questions about why the boy found buttons disgusting

 Sample: A 9-year-old Hispanic American boy who was part of the Child Anxiety and
Phobia Program at Florida International University. He came with an avoidance of
buttons.

 Sampling Technique: Opportunity Sampling

 The boy and the mother gave informed consent to participate in the assessment and
intervention procedures. Written content was also provided to publish this study.

 The boy met the DSM-IV criteria for a specific phobia of buttons.

 The phobia began when the boy was 5 years old in kindergarten, during an art project
involving buttons.
 The boy ran out of buttons so was asked to come to the front of the class and take them.
When he reached the bowl, his hand slipped and the buttons in the bowl fell on him. He
described this experience as distressful.

 Duration of the phobia was 4 years.

 He did not express significant stressors or events that could be related to the phobia’s
onset during this period.

 Behavioural Exposures

 The child was treated with an exposure-based treatment programme

that tackled cognitions and behaviour.

 The treatment involved the use of contingency management. The mother

provided positive reinforcement if the boy successfully completed the gradual exposure to buttons.

 Treatment sessions lasted about 30 minutes with the boy alone and 20
 Mrs. SADAF YASMIN, Lecturer Psychology, Sociology & English [03335611369]

minutes with the boy and his mother.

 Before the first session, the boy devised a disgust and fear

hierarchy using distress ratings on a 9-point scale (from 0-8) via a feelings thermometer as shown in
Table 1.

 The most difficult were small, clear, plastic buttons.

 He had 4 sessions of behavioural exposure to buttons using this

hierarchy.

 Disgust Imagery and Cognitions

 After the behavioural exposure, it was planned to have 7 sessions

looking into the boy’s disgust imagery and cognitions with a view of helping him to change these over
time.

 Further probing revealed that they boy found buttons disgusting upon

contact with his body.

 He also expressed that buttons emitted unpleasant odours.

 These seven sessions involved exploring with the boy the vicarious

things about buttons that he found disgusting and using specific cognitive strategies.

 He was prompted to imagine buttons falling on him and to express how

they looked, felt, smelled and to elaborate on how these imagery exposures made him feel.

 Although the boy indicated that buttons were “disgusting and gross”,

even with intense probing it was difficult for him to describe exactly what about buttons rendered them
disgusting and gross.
 Mrs. SADAF YASMIN, Lecturer Psychology, Sociology & English [03335611369]

 Results

 By session 4, the boy had successfully completed all in vivo exposure tasks up to those
with the highest distress ratings.

 Even though he could handle more and more buttons, his distress rating increased
dramatically from session 2 to 3 and 3 to 4.

 In session 4, the boy’s subjective ratings that had been 6 or 7 prior to the treatment
were now higher.

 This phenomenon was consistent with evaluative learning.

 Disgust-related imagery exposures and cognitions appeared to be successful in reducing

the boy’s subjective ratings of distress.

 In the imagery sessions, he had to imagine hundreds of buttons falling on him, before
the cognitive restructuring, he rated the experience as 8. This decreased to 5 midway
through the session and ended up as 3.

 In a session where he has to imagine hugging his mother while she was wearing a shirt
with many buttons, the distress ratings went from 7 to 4 to 3.

 He was followed up 6 and 12 months after treatment and he no longer met the specific
phobia of buttons

 Conclusions

 Disgust plays a key role in the development and maintenance of a phobia but a mixture
of behavioural exposure and cognitive restructuring helped to eliminate the feelings of
disgust.

 Ethical Issues

 The participant was severely distressed and protection provided.

 Informed consent was taken from the mother and the boy.

 Strengths

 Qualitative and quantitative data were both acquired in this study.

 This is a case study and is focused on one person only hence detailed data was collected.

 The study was conducted in a therapeutic setting hence had ecological validity.

 Weaknesses

 The study lacks mundane realism.

 This was a case study and used only one participant, hence has a low generalizability.

 The ratings are subjective and this lowers reliability.

 Mrs. SADAF YASMIN, Lecturer Psychology, Sociology & English [03335611369]

 Issues and Debates

 Application to everyday life: For treating other phobias

 Nature versus Nurture: The process by which the phobia was acquired relates to
nurture.

Pepperberg (parrot learning)

 Title: Acquisition of the same/different concept by an African Grey parrot (Psittacus Erithacus):
Learning with respect to categories of colour, shape and material.

 Year: 1987

 Psychology being investigated:

 Comprehension of same and different

 Background

 To see if nonhumans can use abstract symbolic relationships when communicating

 Many psychologists believe that only humans possess “true language skills” alongside
the ability to show a range of cognitive skills.

 Prior to this study, Pepperberg had reported on an African Grey parrot, Alex.

 He could categorize subjects, count up to six and use functional phrases “Come here” “I
want X” “Wanna go Y” and “no”. However, Pepperberg stated that these do not show
whether a non-human can comprehend and use abstract symbolic relationships when
communicating.

 One cognitive skill that had been reported as being a concept not seen in non-humans is
the comprehension of “same” or “different”.

 Premack noted that for a non-human to demonstrate comprehension of “same” two

aspects must apply

 They must recognize that two independent objects called A1 & A2 are both blue and this
single attribute makes them “same”

 They must also recognize that this “sameness” can be immediately extrapolated and
symbolically represented not only for two other blue items, but for two novel
independent items that have nothing in common with the original set of A’s
 This study was designed to test these two ways of assessing the cognitive skill of “same”
or “different”.

 Aims

 To see if an avian subject could use vocal labels to demonstrate symbolic comprehension
of the concepts of same and different.
 Mrs. SADAF YASMIN, Lecturer Psychology, Sociology & English [03335611369]

 Procedure

 Research Method: Laboratory Experiment, Case Study

 Experimental Design: N/A

 IV: Whether the object is familiar or novel

 DV: Whether the parrot responds correctly to the questions

 Sample: African Grey parrot named Alex who was the focus of Pepperberg’s work since
June 1977. He had free access to all parts of the lab for 8 hours/day when the trainers
were present. During his “sleeping hours” he was placed in a cage with fresh water and a
standard seed mix for parrots was available at all times. The trials occurred at various
locations around the laboratory depending on where Alex was at that time. Other food
such as fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and toys were provided when Alex asked for them.

 Sampling Technique: Opportunity

 Quantitative data: % Success rate on trials was measured for familiar and novel objects

 Alex was presented with two objects which could be differentiated based on three
categories: colour, shape and material. He would then be asked either “What’s same?”
or “What’s different?”

 A correct response would be only recorded if Alex vocalised the appropriate category.

 Four processes Alex had to go through to get a correct response

 Attend to multiple features of two different objects

 From the vocal question, determine whether the response is based on sameness or
difference

 Work out what is same or different

 Vocally produce a category response

 To complete these, Alex had to perform the cognitive skill of feature analysis on the
objects

 He had already been learning “language” and concepts for around 9 years prior to this
study hence he could already produce vocal labels in English.

 During the course of the study Alex acquired labels for orange, purple and six-cornered
objects.

 Training sessions occurred 2-4 times per week and lasted between 5 minutes to 1 hours.

 Training (general):

 MODEL/RIVAL technique - primary technique used by Pepperberg; it is based on the

principles of social learning theory
 Mrs. SADAF YASMIN, Lecturer Psychology, Sociology & English [03335611369]

 This demonstrates to the parrot types of interactive responses in the study.

 One person acts as a trainer to the second human. The trainer asks questions about the
object and gives praise and rewards for the correct answer but shows disapproval for the
incorrect answer.

 The second human acts as a model for Alex but also as a rival for the trainer’s attention.

 The roles of model/rival (M/R) and trainer were frequently reversed and Alex was often
given the opportunity to participate in these sessions.

 During any training where the purpose was to acquire a correct label, each correct
response was rewarded with the object itself.

 To keep Alex’s motivation high, he could ask for any reward if he answered correctly.

 Training (same/different):

 A trainer would hold up two objects in front of the model/rival and ask “What’s same?”
or “What’s different?”

 Both types of questions and training objects were mixed within each session.

 Objects were always red, green or blue; triangular or square; rawhide or wood.

 M/R would respond with the correct category label and was given a reward.

 If the M/R gave an incorrect response, the trainer scolded the person.

 When an error was presented, the objects were removed from sight, and then
presented again with the same question asked.

 The role of M/R was then reversed.

 Initial training contrasted just the categories of colour and shape Alex had already learnt.
He was then trained on a third category “mah-mah” (matter).

 To prevent boredom of repetitive tasks he was also being trained on number concepts,
new labels for other objects, recognition of photographs and object permanence.

 Formal testing was only started after he acquired the label “mah-mah”.

 General Training:

 A secondary trainer who had never trained him earlier carried out trials. This was done
to reduce any effect of cuing from the original trainers.

 The questioning was incorporated into other test sessions that were being conducted on
Alex.

 On a previous day, the principal trainer would list all possible objects that could be used
for testing. A student who was not involved in any training would then choose the
question and randomly order them.
 Mrs. SADAF YASMIN, Lecturer Psychology, Sociology & English [03335611369]

 In a week, “same” or “different” questions were asked 1-4 times.

 Testing took place over 26 months (2 years 2 months)

 Principal trainer was present wherever the trail took place but she sat with her back-
facing Alex and did not look at him during the presentation of the objects.

 She never knew what was being presented and would repeat out what she though Alex
had said.

 If it was correct Alex was given that object as a reward and praised.

 If not, the examiner removed the object and emphatically said, “NO!” When this
happened, a correction procedure was used in which the object was presented until the
correct response was given.

 The same materials were never presented again so there was a sings fist-trial response.

 An overall test score was produced. First-trial results were also calculated.

 Tests on objects who are familiar:

 Object pairs were presented to Alex.

 They were similar pairings to the ones used in the training phase but never the same.

 Individual objects were obviously used in more than one trial but the pairing were
always novel and a specific pair would only ever be presented again if Alex gave an
incorrect label (or erred).

 Transfer tests using novel objects:

 Alex was presented with pairs of objects that combined several attributes that had never
been used in the training phase or in previous questioning.

 Alex was presented with totally novel objects that might not have even had a label.

 He was exposed to objects that did not have a label for and objects that he has no
experience of.

 Any completely new object was within the environment of Alex for several days prior to
being used so that Alex got used to seeing it and to reduce fear responses.

 The use of probes:

 One concern was that in formulating his answers, Alex might not be attending to the
questions, but merely responding to the physical characteristics of the objects.
 Thus, at random intervals probes were administered in which he was asked questions for
which two category labels could be the correct response.

 If he were ignoring the content of the question and answering on the basis of attributes,
he would have responded with an incorrect answer.
 Mrs. SADAF YASMIN, Lecturer Psychology, Sociology & English [03335611369]

 Results

 The training for Alex to acquire “colour” and “shape” as labels took 4 months and for
“mah-mah” it took 9 months.

 The length of each session was dictated by Alex’s willingness to attend.

 Familiar objects:

 99 out 129 (76.7%) correct responses overall

 69 out of 99 (69.7%) on first-trail only performance

 Based on chance, he should have scored 33.3%

 His performance on pairs made of objects that were no longer novel but contained a
colour, shape or material he could not yet label was 13 out of 17 and 10 out of 13 for
first-trials.

 Transfer tests with novel objects:

 96 out of 113 (85%) correct overall

 79 out of 96 (82.3%) on first trials

 When there was a novel object in a pair his score was 86% and when both objects were
novel it was 83%

 Probes:

 55 out of 91 (90.2%) correct overall

 49 out of 55 (89.1%) on fist trails

 This demonstrates he was processing the questions rather than simply the attributes of
the objects

 Conclusions

 The data indicates that at least one avian subject shows symbolic comprehension of the
concept same/different.

 Alex’s scores on all tests were significantly above chance, suggesting that he understood
what the questions were asking.

 It would therefore appear that symbolic representation of same/different is not

exclusive to primates.

 Ethical Issues

 Strong animal ethics - Number (only one), rewards given, no deprivation and appropriate
caging.

 Strengths
 Mrs. SADAF YASMIN, Lecturer Psychology, Sociology & English [03335611369]

 Case study – focused on one subject

 High standardisation – higher reliability

 High validity

 Weaknesses

 Lacks mundane realism

 Low generalizability – due to case study

 Issues and Debates

 Application: for training animals

 Nature versus nurture: supports nurture. He was learning through both operant
conditioning and social learning.