Traditional learning theories stress that people are either conditioned through reward and punishment or by close association with neutral or evocative stimuli. These direct experience theories do not account for people's learning complex behavior through observation. Attentional, retention, motoric reproduction, reinforcement, and motivational…

One prediction derived from observational learning theory is that children learn parental-role behaviors by observing parental models. Variables which strongly influence behavior acquisition and performance during observational learning are the behavioral consequences of an action, and the sex of the behavioral model. To evaluate the effects of…

Subjects were 61 males and females who observed one of four combinations of male and female model performance on an anagram task: (1) male success-female success, (2) male success-female failure, (3) male failure-female success, and (4) male failure-female failure. Subjects' expectations of their own future success and amount of ability relating…

The effect of descriptive verbalization during observation of a model on mentally retarded boys' retention for what they had observed was examined with 40 9- to 12-year-old boys in public school educable mentally retarded classes. (Author)

The purpose of this paper is to review some of the current research in "modeling" or "imitation" learning that supports basic elements of social learning theory, its effects on overt behavior, and its relationship to subjects' self-evaluations. An attempt is made to point out the theoretical discrepancies that exist between social learning, social…

The idea that breaks from experience are necessary and salutary in teacher education is a response to an enduring problem of teacher education: the fact that aspiring teachers come to their preparation with set ideas about teaching, learning, and schooling that fit with the larger ideal and institutional order into which they were born. Typically,…

The effects of observing a model and of providing a response rule on the learning, transfer, and retention of a dial-reading, numerical concept were studied in 144 third-graders. Different experimenters conducted the immediate learning procedures versus the measurements of retention. No extrinsic reinforcers were promised or dispensed. The…

This manual is a companion to an earlier one, "Reinforcing Productive Classroom Behavior," that dealt with the use of reinforcement procedures by school personnel as a means for shaping constructive behavior in children. The present pamphlet continues to focus on the behavior influence process, but its topic is modeling and role-playing as applied…

Teaching skills can be acquired or modified through various processes, including observation, concept acquisition, practice, and feedback. However, evidence does not indicate that combining these processes into a single training methodology provides any advantage for teacher trainees. Teaching also may be influenced by providing information about…

The paper defines and discusses various social learning theories. Central to most theories of how an individual acquires socially acceptable behaviors are the processes of imitation, or observational learning, and identification, or modeling. The effectiveness of each process is noted. (SB)