Social Learning

1. Social Learning • Acquisition of social information and behavior. • Learning how to do something by watching or being instructed by someone else.

2. Children’s Intentional Understanding • Children understand that behavior is goal directed and are adept at perceiving others’ intentions. • This ability develops very early in life. • Can differentiate unwilling from unable actions by 9 months. • Can differentiate intentional and accidental actions by at least 14 months. • Interpret adult gestures as intentional, communicative acts, beginning in 2nd year. • In most forms of social learning, children use their understanding of others’ intentions to guide their decisions about which actions to copy.

3. Three Sources of Information In Social Learning • Goals (Intentions) (“desired end”) • Actions (“means”) • Result (“actual end”)

4. Different forms of social learning Mimicry • The duplication of a behavior without any understanding of the goal of that behavior. • Example: A 2-year-old child steps on a scale, looks at the scale face, and steps off, just like Dad does. • Same behavior, but goal is not understood

5. Different forms of social learning Emulation • One individual observes another interacting with an object and attends to the end result. The first individual then interacts with the object attempting to attain the same end but does not duplicate the same behavior (means) as the model to achieve that end. • Example: A child watches someone sifting sand through her fingers to reveal seashells, then tosses sand in the air to find seashells. • Different means are used to achieve same end - goal is not understood Goal Emulation • Reproduction of a specific goal using behaviors that were not observed. This requires an understanding of the goal that the model had in mind, but the means used to achieve that goal are different. • Example: Child watches an adult open a latch and push a button to open a box to get a piece of candy. Child understands adult’s goal, but only uses the latch to achieve the same goal. • Different means are used to achieve same end - goal is understood Imitation • Reproduction of observed behavior to achieve a specific goal. This requires an understanding of the goal that the model had in mind, as well as the reproduction of important components of the observed behavior. • Example: Child watches an adult open a latch and push a button to open a box to get a piece of candy. Child understands adult’s goal and repeats same actions with the same result. • Same means are used to achieve same end - goal is understood

6. Horner & Whiten (2005) • Goal: retrieve food from within box • Irrelevant action: insert tool into top hole (inner barrier) • Relevant action: insert tool into front hole • Both Irrelevant and Relevant actions modeled • Some children see demonstration with clear box (causal structure observable), some with opaque box (causal structure unobservable)

7. Horner & Whiten (2005) • Regardless of whether the box was clear or opaque, children copied the Irrelevant action in addition to the Relevant action. • Imitation • Chimpanzees copied both actions when the box was opaque, but only copied the Relevant action when the box was clear. • Emulation (or Goal Emulation)

8. Development of Social Learning • Preschoolers (ages 3-5) tend to imitate - they copy all actions they observe and understand the goal of the demonstrator • Children younger than 3 tend to emulate (most likely goal emulation) - they use different actions than those observed to achieve the same goal, and most likely understand the goal of the demonstrator • Imitation increases and emulation decreases as children enter the preschool years.

9. Different forms of social learning Teaching (Instructed Learning) Actor A modifies his or her behavior only in the presence of another, Actor B, without attaining any immediate benefits. As a result of encouraging or discouraging B’s behavior, B acquires a new skill. To be done effectively, teaching requires that both the instructor and student take the perspective of the other. Example: An adult shows a child how to make actions to open a box, perhaps making slow and deliberate motions, molding the child’s fingers, and the child, not the adult, gets the candy inside.

10. Tomasello’s Theory of Cultural Learning • Imitative learning (9-months) • Instructed learning (4 years) • Collaborative learning (6 years)

11. Maternal “teaching” in Dolphins (Bender, Herzing, & Bjorklund, 2009) • Extensive video library of mother-calf dolphin pairs • Latency of mother to consume prey fish from routing to ingestion when foraging: • Alone • With calf

12. “Teaching” in dolphins

13. http://www.world-science.net/images/videos/10071_2008_169_MOESM2_ESM.mpeghttp://www.world-science.net/images/videos/10071_2008_169_MOESM2_ESM.mpeg

14. “Teaching” in nonhuman animals

15. Can apes ape? • Chimpanzees possess “culture” – nongenetic transmission of information across generations (Whiten et al., 1999) • Some evidence of teaching, but rare

16. Deferred (Delayed) Imitation • Reproduction of observed behavior after significant time interval • Involves the representation of actions held in long-term memory stores, which requires symbolic representation (Piaget; Meltzoff) • May reflect declarative/explicit, as opposed to nondeclarative/implicit, memory (McDonough et al., 1995) • Human infants show evidence of deferred imitation for simple actions by 9 months and for more complex actions by 18 months

17. Enculturation • “Apes raised by humans in something like a human cultural environment (sometimes including exposure to or training in symbolic skills); the environment need not literally be a home but must include something close to daily contact with humans and their artifacts in meaningful interaction (Call & Tomasello, 1996) • Direct teaching • Language • Joint-shared attention

18. Tomasello, Savage-Rumbaugh, and Kruger (1993) • 3 enculturated chimps (2 bonobos and 1 common) • 3 mother-reared chimps (2 bonobos and 1 common) • 18- and 30-month old children • 4 deferred-imitation tasks of simple tool use. • Baseline, objects from 4 tasks to interact with for 4 minutes • Target behavior modeled for animal • 24 hour delay, animal given objects for 4 minutes and look for evidence of deferred imitation

19. Percentage of trials showing deferred imitation for children and chimps (Tomasello et al., 1993)

20. Design of Deferred Imitation Experiment (Bering, Bjorklund, & Ragan, 2000) • 3 Enculturated Juvenile Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) • 3 Enculturated Juvenile Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) • Sequence for Each of 7 Tasks • 4-minute Baseline • 5-minute Delay • Demonstration of Target Behavior (6 displays) • 10-minute delay • 4-minute Deferred Imitation Phase

21. Grub

23. Kenya

26. Noelle

29. Scoring • Target • Approximation to the Target • No Imitative Behavior

31. Percentage Deferred Imitation: Chimpanzees

32. Median Latencies to Imitate Target or Approximation to Target Behaviors during the Deferred Trials: Chimpanzees • Grub (5 behaviors): 12.0 sec • Kenya (5 behaviors): 35.0 sec • Noelle (2 behaviors): 17.5 sec • Group median = 17.5 sec • % displayed with in 60 sec: 92% • % displayed within 30 sec: 67%

33. Deferred Imitation in Nonenculturated Chimpanzees • Five female lab-reared chimpanzees, all long-term members of a stable social group at Yerkes Field Station • Kristin Bonnie and Frans de Waal Phases 1 and 2 • Georgia: 24 years, 2 month • Katie: 15 years, 6 months • Anja: 24 years, 10 months • Dona: 14 years, 7 months Phase 3 • Rita: 17 years, 1 month No evidence of immediate or deferred imitation by any animal in any phase

34. Generalization of Imitation • Generalizing behaviors observed with one set of objects to similar, but not identical, objects, to achieve a goal. • Such generalization requires the actor to understand that a similar goal, with a new set of objects, can be achieved by executing similar actions.

35. Design of Generalization of Imitation Experiment: Chimpanzees (Bjorklund, Yunger, Bering, & Ragan, 2002) • 3 Enculturated Juveniles Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) • Sequence for Each of 8 Tasks • 6-minute baseline with two sets of objects (e.g., cymbals and trowels) • 5-minute Delay • Demonstration of Target Behavior (e.g, with cymbals) • 10-minute delay • 4-minute Generalization of Imitation Phase with different objects than used in demonstration • 4-minute Imitation Phase with same objects used in demonstration

37. Percentage Imitation and Generalization of Imitation: Chimpanzees

38. Species-atypical environments for human-reared chimpanzees produced modified patterns of social cognition. What is the nature of such changes? • Produce only molar (i.e., behavioral) level changes in sociality leading to enhanced learning abilities • Socialization of attention (Tomasello) • Apprenticeship hypothesis (Bering) • Changes in the epigenetic system leading to the phenotypical expression of cognitive abilities that are otherwise suppressed under natural conditions

39. Chimpanzees, and likely our common ancestor with chimpanzees, possessed the necessary plasticity to modify their social cognition in response to novel environments, possibly leading to the exploration of new niches and to new selection pressures, and eventually to evolutionary changes in intelligence.

40. Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory • Reciprocal determinism: children affect their environment as much as their environment affects them.

41. Capabilities involved Bandura’s social cognitive theory and the four subprocesses of observational learning • Key Cognitive Capabilities • Symbolization: • The ability to think about social behavior in words and images. • Forethought: • The ability to anticipate the consequences of our actions and the actions of others. • Self-regulation: • The ability to adopt standards of acceptable behavior for ourselves. • Self-reflection: • The ability to analyze our thoughts and actions. • Vicarious learning: • The ability to learn new behavior and the consequences of one’s actions by observing others.

42. Subprocesses of Observational Learning • Attentional processes • Retention processes • Production processes • Motivational processes

43. Dodge’s Model of Social Information Processing

44. Cognitive Bases of Gender Identification • Gender Constancy (Kohlberg) • Gender identity • Gender stability • Gender consistency • Gender Schemas • Gender Knowledge of Sex-Types Behaviors

46. Time line for early gender development (Adapted from Martin, C. L., Ruble, D. N., & Szkrybalo, J. (2002). • Age Gender-based knowledge and perception • 6-8 months • Discriminate between voices of males and females • Will habituate (reduce looking time) to one category of faces (male or female) • 9-11 moths • Discriminate between male and females faces • Associate female faces with female voices • 12-14 months • Associate female faces with female voices and male faces with male voices • 18-20 months • Associate sex-stereotypic objects with “appropriate” gender (that is, associate male faces with male-stereotypic objects and female faces with female-stereotypic objects) • Associate verbal labels (lady, man) with appropriate faces • 24-26 months • Correctly identify pictures of boys and girls • Imitate gender-related sequences • Generalize imitation to appropriate gender (for example, using a male doll to imitate a masculine activity

47. A model of phase changes in the rigidity of children’s gender stereotypes as a function of age (Martin, & Ruble, 2004).

49. Some important emergent literacy skills and knowledge (Adapted from Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). • 1. Language: Although reading is not simply a reflection of spoken language, children need to be versatile with their spoken language before they can be expected to read it. • 2. Conventions of print: Knowledge of some of the basics of how print is organized for reading. For example, in English, children learn that reading is done left-to-right, top-to-bottom, and front-to-back. • 3. Knowledge of letters: Most children can recite their ABCs before entering school and can identify individual letters of the alphabet. • 4. Linguistic awareness: Children must learn to identify not only letters but also linguistic units, such as phonemes, syllables, and words. • 5. Phoneme-grapheme correspondence: Knowledge of the sounds that correspond to letters. • 6. Emergent reading: Many children pretend to read, taking a familiar storybook and making up a narrative. • 7. Emergent writing: Similar to pretend reading, children often pretend to write, making squiggles on a page to “write” their name or a story. • 8. Print motivation: Children differ in their motivation to learn to read. Children who are interested in reading and writing are more likely to notice print, ask questions about print, encourage adults to read to them, and spend more time reading once they are able.

50. Percentage of correct responses of children reading familiar real words and pseudo words for languages with shallow orthographies (Finish, Greek, and Italian) versus languages with deep orthographies (French, Danish, and Scottish English)