{"id":105836,"date":"2023-06-17T22:22:49","date_gmt":"2023-06-18T02:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=105836"},"modified":"2023-06-21T22:25:03","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T02:25:03","slug":"observational-learning-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/observational-learning-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"Observational Learning Theory: What It Means for Kids &#038; Parents"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the observational learning theory? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-do-children-learn\/\">How do children learn<\/a> from imitating others?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The observational learning theory proposes that children (and even adults) can acquire new knowledge simply by watching other people. In <em>The Gardener and the Carpenter<\/em>, Alison Gopnik explains how you as a parent can adjust your teaching patterns to support this type of learning in your children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn more about how children pick things up by observing you, other children, and other adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-observational-learning-and-imitation\"><strong>Observational Learning and Imitation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The observational learning theory says that children observe others and learn from what they see, often imitating others\u2019 behavior to learn more deeply. Children don\u2019t have to be told that someone is teaching them something in order to learn. They learn not only activities that they see but also activities that adults do with them, and Gopnik implies that this is the best way to teach\u2014not with the goal of creating knowledge, but with the goal of doing things together, which she describes as love in practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Observational Learning: An Aspect of Social Learning<\/strong><br><br>Observational learning theory is a component of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.simplypsychology.org\/bandura.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Social Learning Theory<\/a>, which was proposed by Albert Bandura in the 1970s. One feature of this theory that Gopnik doesn\u2019t address is that the behavior children learn from observation can be further shaped by others\u2019 responses to that behavior. Specifically, a positive response from others will reinforce that behavior, making the child more likely to repeat it. Gopnik focuses heavily on the initial act of teaching, but Social Learning Theory suggests that adults may have more control over what children learn than Gopnik indicates because they can reinforce a child\u2019s behavior.&nbsp;<br><br>However, research into social learning does support Gopnik\u2019s suggestion that teaching by doing is more effective than teaching to create knowledge, as children aren\u2019t motivated by the prospect of gaining knowledge but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/blog\/freedom-learn\/201712\/the-joy-and-sorrow-rereading-holt-s-how-children-learn#:~:text=Children%20are%20brilliant%20learners%20because,as%20doing.%20They%20want%20to%20engage%20in\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rather by the immediate joy of <em>doing <\/em>something<\/a>.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Gopnik cites various studies that show how children learn through observation. Kids pay close attention to the <em>intention<\/em> behind a behavior\u2014meaning they imitate not just the behavior itself but the goal behind the behavior. If they see an adult deliberately turn on the TV using a remote control, for example, they\u2019re more likely to imitate that behavior than if they see an adult turn on the TV accidentally by sitting on the remote control. They also notice and come up with alternative ways of doing things, including ways to make an action more efficient\u2014for instance, if they see someone taking unnecessary steps to accomplish something, they\u2019ll often learn to eliminate those steps and streamline the process to achieve the goal.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Caregivers Should Be Cautious About the Intentions They Model<\/strong><br><br>Gopnik shows how children focus on the <em>intention<\/em> behind an adult\u2019s behavior when deciding whether to imitate it, which suggests that perhaps <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canr.msu.edu\/news\/monkey_see_monkey_do_model_behavior_in_early_childhood\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">caregivers should themselves be more <em>intentional<\/em><\/a> about the intentions they and other significant adult figures model for them. If children see someone intentionally perform a harmful behavior, they might be more likely to imitate that behavior than if they see someone unintentionally do the same thing.&nbsp;<br><br>For instance, you likely wouldn\u2019t want your child to watch a group of teens intentionally destroying a playground\u2014your child would recognize the purpose behind the action and might be driven to imitate it. Similarly, you might also want to be more cautious about the intentions <em>you<\/em> model: If your car won\u2019t start and you begin angrily kicking the wheel with the intention of damaging the vehicle, your child might be tempted to model that purposeful behavior, too. What\u2019s more, children may even find ways to <em>more efficiently <\/em>perform these harmful behaviors since they\u2019re often able to eliminate unnecessary steps from processes.&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Overimitation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>However, there are times when children will imitate unnecessary steps\u2014which Gopnik refers to as overimitation. If they\u2019re learning from someone who seems to be an expert\u2014for example, someone who says \u201cI know how this object works, let me show you,\u201d versus \u201cI don\u2019t know how this object works, let\u2019s figure it out\u201d\u2014they\u2019ll imitate unnecessary steps as well. They also tend to experiment less when being taught by an \u201cexpert,\u201d so they\u2019re likely to come up with fewer alternative ways of doing things.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Some psychologists don&#8217;t object to a child&#8217;s tendency to imitate unnecessary steps, arguing that such &#8220;overimitation&#8221; is a legitimate part of the learning process. A child can&#8217;t know which steps are unneeded until they&#8217;ve gone through all the steps and seen which brought about the desired outcome. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC3049065\/#:~:text=In%20causally%20opaque%20systems%2C%20however%2C%20for%20children%20and%20for%20adults%2C%20any%20action%20performed%20before%20achieving%20the%20goal%20is%20likely%20to%20be%20inferred%20as%20causally%20necessary%E2%80%94this%20is%20not%20over%2Dimitation%2C%20but%20ordinary%20causal%20learning.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">This process helps them learn about cause and effect.<\/a> Some also note that a child&#8217;s tendency to experiment less might be simply because when shown a process by an expert, that process typically leads to the desired outcome immediately, reducing the need for experimentation\u2014which is not necessarily detrimental to the learning process.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Probability<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Gopnik\u2019s research suggests that children will even take probability into account at ages when they\u2019re too young to formally understand what probability is. Gopnik conducted a study in which children were shown a red and a blue block, and a machine that would play music when activated by one of the blocks. They visually demonstrated to the children that the blue block activated the machine more frequently than the red block and then asked the children if they could activate the machine. Children as young as two years old chose the blue block consistently, showing that they can use patterns and statistics to make predictions even without the ability to understand basic math.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Additional research suggests that the age at which children can take probability into account is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2017\/11\/171103105627.htm#:~:text=several%20studies%20have%20already%20investigated,whether%20the%20difficulty%20level%20of%20the\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">as young as six months<\/a> as opposed to two years. It shows that babies pay more attention to extremely unlikely things (625 times less likely than the alternative) as opposed to things that are only slightly less likely (9 times less likely than the alternative), suggesting that babies can instinctively understand when events might be more or less likely to happen.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the observational learning theory? How do children learn from imitating others? The observational learning theory proposes that children (and even adults) can acquire new knowledge simply by watching other people. In The Gardener and the Carpenter, Alison Gopnik explains how you as a parent can adjust your teaching patterns to support this type of learning in your children. Learn more about how children pick things up by observing you, other children, and other adults.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":71861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,13,9],"tags":[1069],"class_list":["post-105836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-parenting","category-psychology","tag-the-gardener-and-the-carpenter","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Observational Learning Theory: What It Means for Kids &amp; Parents - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The observational learning theory says that children pick things up by watching others. 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