Which Of The Following Is True With Regard To Insight Learning?

Chapter 8. Learning

8.3 Learning by Insight and Observation

Learning Objective

Understand the principles of learning by insight and observation.

John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner were behaviourists who believed that all learning could be explained past the processes of conditioning — that is, that associations, and associations solitary, influence learning. Just some kinds of learning are very difficult to explain using just workout. Thus, although classical and operant conditioning play a key part in learning, they found merely a part of the total picture show.

Ane type of learning that is not determined merely past conditioning occurs when we of a sudden find the solution to a trouble, as if the idea simply popped into our head. This type of learning is known as insight, the sudden agreement of a solution to a problem. The German language psychologist Wolfgang Köhler (1925) advisedly observed what happened when he presented chimpanzees with a problem that was not easy for them to solve, such equally placing nutrient in an area that was besides high in the cage to be reached. He found that the chimps commencement engaged in trial-and-fault attempts at solving the problem, simply when these failed they seemed to finish and contemplate for a while. And so, afterward this period of contemplation, they would suddenly seem to know how to solve the problem: for example, past using a stick to knock the food downward or by standing on a chair to reach it. Köhler argued that it was this flash of insight, not the prior trial-and-fault approaches, which were so of import for conditioning theories, that allowed the animals to solve the problem.

Edward Tolman studied the behaviour of 3 groups of rats that were learning to navigate through mazes (Tolman & Honzik, 1930). The commencement group always received a advantage of food at the end of the maze. The 2d grouping never received whatsoever advantage, and the tertiary grouping received a advantage, but merely beginning on the 11th day of the experimental period. As you lot might look when considering the principles of conditioning, the rats in the first group quickly learned to negotiate the maze, while the rats of the second grouping seemed to wander aimlessly through information technology. The rats in the third group, however, although they wandered aimlessly for the first 10 days, rapidly learned to navigate to the cease of the maze as soon as they received food on 24-hour interval 11. By the next twenty-four hours, the rats in the third group had caught upward in their learning to the rats that had been rewarded from the starting time.

It was clear to Tolman that the rats that had been allowed to experience the maze, even without any reinforcement, had nevertheless learned something, and Tolman called this latent learning. Latent learning refers to learning that is not reinforced and not demonstrated until there is motivation to do so. Tolman argued that the rats had formed a "cognitive map" of the maze but did not demonstrate this knowledge until they received reinforcement.

Observational Learning: Learning past Watching

The idea of latent learning suggests that animals, and people, may larn simply by experiencing or watching. Observational learning (modelling) is learning by observing the behaviour of others. To demonstrate the importance of observational learning in children, Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1963) showed children a live image of either a human being or a woman interacting with a Bobo doll, a filmed version of the same events, or a cartoon version of the events. As y'all can run into in "Video Prune: Bandura Discussing Clips From His Modelling Studies," the Bobo doll is an inflatable balloon with a weight in the bottom that makes it bob back up when you knock it downward. In all three conditions, the model violently punched the clown, kicked the doll, sat on it, and striking it with a hammer.

Take a moment to see how Albert Bandura explains his enquiry into the modelling of aggression in children.

Watch: "Bandura Discussing Clips from His Modelling Studies" [YouTube]: http://world wide web.youtube.com/watch?v=jWsxfoJEwQQ&characteristic=youtu.be

The researchers start permit the children view 1 of the three types of modelling, and then let them play in a room in which there were some really fun toys. To create some frustration in the children, Bandura let the children play with the fun toys for only a couple of minutes before taking them away. And so Bandura gave the children a run a risk to play with the Bobo doll.

If yous guessed that most of the children imitated the model, yous would be correct. Regardless of which type of modelling the children had seen, and regardless of the sexual practice of the model or the kid, the children who had seen the model behaved aggressively — just as the model had done. They also punched, kicked, sat on the doll, and hit it with the hammer. Bandura and his colleagues had demonstrated that these children had learned new behaviours only past observing and imitating others.

Observational learning is useful for animals and for people considering it allows us to learn without having to actually engage in what might be a risky behaviour. Monkeys that meet other monkeys respond with fear to the sight of a snake learn to fear the serpent themselves, even if they take been raised in a laboratory and accept never actually seen a snake (Cook & Mineka, 1990). As Bandura put it,

the prospects for [human] survival would be slim indeed if one could acquire but past suffering the consequences of trial and error. For this reason, i does non teach children to swim, adolescents to drive automobiles, and novice medical students to perform surgery by having them detect the appropriate behaviour through the consequences of their successes and failures. The more plush and chancy the possible mistakes, the heavier is the reliance on observational learning from competent learners. (Bandura, 1977, p. 212)

Although modelling is ordinarily adaptive, it tin be problematic for children who grow upwards in violent families. These children are not simply the victims of aggression, but they also run into information technology happening to their parents and siblings. Because children learn how to be parents in big role past modelling the deportment of their own parents, it is no surprise that there is a strong correlation betwixt family violence in babyhood and violence equally an adult. Children who witness their parents being fierce or who are themselves abused are more likely equally adults to inflict corruption on intimate partners or their children, and to exist victims of intimate violence (Heyman & Slep, 2002). In plough, their children are more likely to collaborate violently with each other and to aggress against their parents (Patterson, Dishion, & Banking company, 1984).

Inquiry Focus: The Effects of Violent Video Games on Assailment

The average North American child watches more than four hours of television every mean solar day, and two out of three of the programs they lookout comprise aggression. It has been estimated that past the age of 12, the average North American child has seen more than 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence. At the same time, children are too exposed to violence in movies, video games, and virtual reality games, also as in music videos that include trigger-happy lyrics and imagery (Henry J. Kaiser Family unit Foundation, 2003; Schulenburg, 2007; Coyne & Archer, 2005).

It might not surprise you to hear that these exposures to violence accept an effect on aggressive behaviour. The evidence is impressive and clear: the more than media violence that people, including children, view, the more aggressive they are likely to be (Anderson et al., 2003; Cantor et al., 2001). The relationship between viewing television violence and aggressive behaviour is well-nigh as strong as the relationship between smoking and cancer or between studying and academic grades. People who watch more than violence become more than ambitious than those who watch less violence.

It is clear that watching television receiver violence can increase aggression, but what near tearing video games? These games are more popular than e'er, and also more graphically violent. Youths spend countless hours playing these games, many of which involve engaging in extremely violent behaviours. The games oftentimes require the thespian to take the role of a tearing person, to place with the character, to select victims, and of form to kill the victims. These behaviours are reinforced by winning points and moving on to college levels, and are repeated over and over.

Once again, the answer is articulate — playing violent video games leads to aggression. A recent meta-analysis by Anderson and Bushman (2001) reviewed 35 enquiry studies that had tested the effects of playing violent video games on aggression. The studies included both experimental and correlational studies, with both male and female participants in both laboratory and field settings. They found that exposure to violent video games is significantly linked to increases in ambitious thoughts, aggressive feelings, psychological arousal (including claret pressure and center charge per unit), as well as aggressive behaviour. Furthermore, playing more video games was plant to relate to less altruistic behaviour.

In one experiment, Bushman and Anderson (2002) assessed the furnishings of viewing violent video games on aggressive thoughts and behaviour. Participants were randomly assigned to play either a violent or a nonviolent video game for 20 minutes. Each participant played i of four violent video games (Carmageddon, Duke Nukem, Mortal Kombat, or Future Cop) or one of four irenic video games (Glider Pro, 3D Pinball, Austin Powers, or Tetra Madness).

Participants and then read a story — for case, this one about Todd — and were asked to listing twenty thoughts, feelings, and deportment they would have if they were Todd:

Todd was on his mode habitation from work one evening when he had to brake speedily for a yellow light. The person in the auto behind him must have thought Todd was going to run the light considering he crashed into the back of Todd'south car, causing a lot of impairment to both vehicles. Fortunately, there were no injuries. Todd got out of his car and surveyed the damage. He and then walked over to the other car.

Equally you can run across in Figure 8.viii, "Results From Bushman and Anderson, 2002," the students who had played one of the fierce video games responded much more aggressively to the story than did those who played the irenic games. In fact, their responses were often extremely aggressive. They said things like "Call the guy an idiot," "Boot the other driver's car," "This guy's dead meat!" and "What a dumbass!"

Violent Video Game Responses. Long description available — Figure eight.viii Researchers found that undergraduate students who had just played a vehement video game expressed significantly more vehement responses to a story than did those who had just played a nonviolent video game. [Long Clarification] Adapted from Bushman & Anderson (2002).

However, although modelling can increase violence, it tin can likewise have positive effects. Research has constitute that, just as children learn to be aggressive through observational learning, they can besides learn to be altruistic in the same mode (Seymour, Yoshida, & Dolan, 2009).

Cardinal Takeaways

Non all learning can exist explained through the principles of classical and operant conditioning.
Insight is the sudden understanding of the components of a problem that makes the solution apparent.
Latent learning refers to learning that is not reinforced and non demonstrated until there is motivation to practise so.
Observational learning occurs by viewing the behaviours of others.
Both assailment and altruism tin can be learned through observation.

Exercises and Critical Thinking

Depict a time when y'all learned something by insight. What practise you think led to your learning?
Imagine that you had a 12-year-old brother who spent many hours a day playing vehement video games. Basing your answer on the cloth covered in this chapter, do you think that your parents should limit his exposure to the games? Why or why non?
How might we incorporate principles of observational learning to encourage acts of kindness and selflessness in our guild?

References

Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2001). Effects of vehement video games on ambitious beliefs, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial beliefs: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature.Psychological Science, 12(5), 353–359.

Anderson, C. A., Berkowitz, L., Donnerstein, E., Huesmann, 50. R., Johnson, J. D., Linz, D.,…Wartella, Eastward. (2003). The influence of media violence on youth.Psychological Science in the Public Involvement, 4(3), 81–110.

Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavior alter.Psychological Review, 84, 191–215.

Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, South. A. (1963). Fake of film-mediated aggressive models.The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 66(1), three–11.

Bushman, B. J., & Anderson, C. A. (2002). Violent video games and hostile expectations: A test of the general aggression model.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(12), 1679–1686.

Cantor, J., Bushman, B. J., Huesmann, 50. R., Groebel, J., Malamuth, N. Thou., Impett, E. A.,…Vocalist, J. L. (Eds.). (2001).Some hazards of television viewing: Fears, aggression, and sexual attitudes. Thou Oaks, CA: Sage.

Cook, M., & Mineka, S. (1990). Selective associations in the observational conditioning of fear in rhesus monkeys.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 16(iv), 372–389.

Coyne, S. M., & Archer, J. (2005). The relationship between indirect and physical aggression on television and in real life.Social Development, xiv(two), 324–337.

Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. (2003, Spring). Cardinal facts: TV Violence [PDF]. Menlo Park, CA: Author. Retrieved from https://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/key-facts-tv set-violence.pdf

Heyman, R. E., & Slep, A. Thou. S. (2002). Practise child corruption and interparental violence pb to adulthood family violence?Journal of Marriage and Family, 64(4), 864–870.

Köhler, W. (1925).The mentality of apes (E. Winter, Trans.). New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Patterson, 1000. R., Dishion, T. J., & Bank, 50. (1984). Family unit interaction: A process model of deviancy training.Aggressive Behavior, 10(iii), 253–267.

Schulenburg, C. (2007, Jan). Dying to entertain: Violence on prime number time broadcast television, 1998 to 2006 [PDF]. Los Angeles, CA: Parents Television Council. Retrieved from http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/reports/violencestudy/DyingtoEntertain.pdf

Seymour, B., Yoshida, W., & Dolan, R. (2009) Altruistic learning.Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 3, 23.

Tolman, E. C., & Honzik, C. H. (1930). Introduction and removal of advantage, and maze operation in rats.University of California Publications in Psychology, four, 257–275.