Lecture Notes on Learning Behavior and Bandura's Experiments

Importance of Behavior Around Children

Common sense: Be mindful of behavior around young children.
- Concern: Children can pick up and learn bad behavior or inappropriate language.
Focus: Children learn through observation.

Albert Bandura: Psychologist who studied observational learning.
Bobo Doll: An inflatable doll used in the experiment, popular in 1965.
Experiment Setup:
- Group of children doing arts-and-crafts.
- An adult started aggressively hitting and kicking the Bobo doll while shouting "hit it, kick it" for 10 minutes.
Children's Reaction:
- Some children observed the aggressive behavior; others were indifferent.
- Afterward, children were induced with frustration using an impossible puzzle.
- Placed in a room with various toys including the Bobo doll.
- Observed many children mimicking the aggressive behavior and phrases.
Conclusion: Children can learn behavior by observing others.

Modified Experiment:
- Showed children a video of someone being aggressive towards the Bobo doll.
- The person in the video was punished afterward.
Children's Behavior:
- Some imitated the aggressive behavior they saw.
- Those who initially didn't mimic were later able to do so when incentivized with stickers and juice.
Conclusion: Learning behavior vs. performing behavior are distinct.

Concept: Learning a behavior and performing it are separate actions.
Bribing Experiment: Proved that children learned the behavior but didn't perform it without motivation.
Implications: Relevant to debates on violent video games and movies; children might learn aggressive behaviors even if they don't display them.

Mnemonic: "Am I motivated?"
- A: Attention
- M: Memory
- I: Imitation
- M: Motivation
Example: Learning to draw a star.
- Need to pay attention to the drawing process.
- Remember the steps.
- Imitate the drawing.
- Be motivated to perform the drawing.
Importance: Understanding the components of learning behavior through observation.