All the principles described in the previous two chapter can operate either directly or vicariously. In other words, in addition to influencing a learner directly, the contingent consequences of a behavior can also influence anyone who happens to be watching the person perform the behavior and experience the consequences (Bandura, 1969, 1986). Vicarious reinforcement occurs, for example, when a student becomes more likely to study hard because she has seen her friend rewarded for industrious study habits. Vicarious punishment occurs when a driver stops speeding because he sees a police officer giving someone else a traffic ticket. Vicarious extinction occurs when students stop raising their hands in French class because they have noticed that their friends who volunteer answers have never been rewarded for doing so.

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Define and give examples of observational (vicarious) learning.
   
   
2. Define and give examples of the imitative effect, the eliciting effect, the disinhibitory effect, and the inhibitory effect of observational learning.
   
   
3. Identify the factors that influence the effectiveness of these vicarious strategies.
   
   
4. Define and describe how to use scaffolded instruction to teaching higher order thinking skills.

The Four Types of Vicarious Learning

There are four separate types of vicarious learning. These are worth knowing, because they enable you can expect learners to change their behavior as a result of observing someone else experience the principles described throughout this chapter. These four types of vicarious learning are summarized in Table 12.1.

• The Modeling Effect occurs when a person almost directly duplicates a behavior he has seen someone else perform and which the observer has not previously suppressed. The observer displays new behaviors that prior to the modeling had a zero probability of occurring. For example, my son bats the way he does because Barry Larkin is successful with that batting stance.
  
  
• The Eliciting Effect occurs when the observer performs a behavior to the model's, but still somewhat different. For example, if I hear that a famous celebrity has donated $50,000 to charity, I would be demonstrating the Eliciting Effect if this generosity prompted me to volunteer to umpire Little League baseball games.
  
  
• The Disinhibitory Effect occurs when a person who has previously refrained from a behavior goes ahead and performs that behavior after seeing a model perform the behavior without receiving any negative consequences. For example, if I already knew how to speed in my automobile but refrained from doing so out of fear of a speeding ticket, I could demonstrate the Disinhibitory Effect by driving more quickly after several cars passed me on the expressway with no apparent negative consequences.
  
  
• The Inhibitory Effect occurs when a person refrains from a behavior after seeing a model punished for engaging in that behavior. For example, I once stopped asking questions in a high school class after I saw several students receive assignments to write reports on topics about which they asked questions.

As Table 12.1 shows, any of these four types of vicarious learning can lead to the development of either desirable or undesirable behaviors.

Models that people imitate take a wide variety of forms. A student may imitate another student, a teacher, a parent, a sports celebrity, a movie star, a cartoon character, a fictional character in a novel, a person demonstrating a skill in an educational film - anyone performing a behavior that can be observed (even in the observer's imagination) can qualify as a model.

It is also important to note that the behavior to be imitated takes shape within the mind of the observer. This means that if the observer thinks the model has been reinforced for performing a behavior, then the observer is likely to imitate that behavior - even if the model did not really perform that behavior or even if the model himself perceived the consequences to be unpleasant rather than pleasant.

It is even possible to have people serve as models for themselves. For example, a teacher could view a videotape of her own performance in the classroom. If her performance contained errors, feedback from a knowledgeable colleague could enable her to visualize how she would do a better job next time. Athletes often use tapes of themselves during good times to teach themselves ways to improve during a slump in their performance.

Accidental Modeling

Vicarious learning can occur by accident.

• Kirk uses very offensive language in talking back to Mr. Winters. Mr. Winters realizes that Kirk is just trying to get his attention, and so he calmly ignores Kirk and attempts to go on with the class. Soon, other students start using offensive language.
  
  
• Ida is the first student of the year to fail to bring in her math assignment. Mrs. Peters knows from previous experience that keeping her for a detention will not be aversive to Ida but that a call to Ida's mother will probably stop the problem for the rest of the year. However, several of the other students think that Ida has gotten by without doing her work, and so they slack off on their own work.
  
  
• Mary makes a slightly rude remark to Mr. King. Mr. King knows that Mary is testing him, and so he comes down on her with a very severe rebuke in front of the entire class. In addition, he talks to Mary alone after class, and urges her to stop playing games and get on with her job of learning. Mary appreciates Mr. King's interest and decides to bear down and do good work in the course. However, several of the students in the class who don't know Mary or Mr. King very well decide to be as quiet as possible in the class. Whenever Mr. King raises a question, they look down so that he won't call on them and ridicule them.

In the first two examples, the observers inaccurately concluded that Kirk and Ida were receiving reinforcement for their undesirable behaviors. Even though this perception was inaccurate, these observers still experienced vicarious reinforcement, and their behaviors were strengthened. In the third example, Mr. King has taken successful steps to minimize negative side effects in Mary; but the negative side effects have had an impact on other students. By anticipating such accidental modeling, we can greatly reduce inappropriate learning.

Important Factors in Vicarious Learning

There are three major factors that influence the likelihood that vicarious learning will occur: the similarity of the model to the observer, the prestige of the model, and the observability of the behavior to be imitated.

• An observer is more likely to imitate a model who is perceived as similar to the observer. Similarity is especially important when observers have little information about the functional value of the modeled behavior (Bandura, 1986). The degree of similarity, of course, is determined within the mind of the observer. A young boy who thinks he is similar to Michael Jordan is likely to imitate what he sees Michael Jordan doing on television, even if most impartial judges would agree that there is actually not even a remote similarity.
  
  
• An observer is more likely to imitate a model who is perceived as prestigious. Again, the degree of prestige is determined within the mind of the observer. A person who is perceived to be very low in prestige by a parent or teacher may be viewed as highly prestigious by a young child.
  
  
• Behaviors that are more easily observed are more easily imitated. Observability can be increased by such strategies as having the model perform the behavior very deliberately, using slow-motion or videotaped replays, verbalizing or otherwise focusing attention on behaviors that are difficult to observe, and pairing written instructions with visually modeled behaviors.

These factors, which are summarized in Table 12.2, are easily exemplified not only in the classroom, but in the world of advertising as well.

Modeling Internal Thought Processes

Is it possible to teach thought processes through observational strategies? At first it might seem impossible to model or imitate what is invisible, but it actually happens that numerous attitudes and thinking skills are learned vicariously. For example, children often develop attitudes toward people or subject matters by imitating their parents or others within their culture (Bandura, 1986). Likewise, children develop a large number of thinking strategies by imitating the ways their peers think. Teachers can exploit opportunities for observational learning of attitudes and thinking skills related to academic subjects.

In many cases, children can accurately infer what is going on inside the model's head. For example, if the teacher often talks about good books she has read, her students may infer that she has a favorable attitude toward reading and adopt a similar attitude themselves. (This is the main logic behind a large amount of advertising, in which sports or media stars endorse products in order to stimulate favorable attitudes toward products among viewers.) In fact, modeling is considered to be one of the primary means for developing attitudes. (See Chapter 8 of this book and Gagne and Driscoll, 1988.)

In other cases, it may be more difficult for the observer to determine what the model is thinking, and in such cases it is necessary for the model to employ a think aloud strategy (Bandura, 1986; Whimbey, 1985). For example, it is possible to employ mental modeling strategies to teach reading skills (Duffy, Roehler, & Herrmann, 1988; Herrmann, 1988) and to reduce impulsivity (Meichenbaum, 1986). Recent research demonstrates that modeling the self-regulation skills discussed in chapter 7can be an effective means for promoting both academic achievement and related self-efficacy beliefs (Schunk & Zimmerman, 1994) . The scaffolding and generative learning strategies designed to teach thinking skills rely heavily on modeling, reinforcement, and shaping to help students develop effective thinking skills.

If you examine your own behaviors, you will discover that a vastly greater number of them have been acquired through observational learning than through direct reinforcement. At the same time, if you examine the behaviors you have acquired through modeling, you will discover that almost none of the models were deliberately attempting to apply the principles of vicarious reinforcement. This means that there exist vast numbers of opportunities for accidental modeling. Parents who don't believe that such modeling is pervasive should simply look at their own children for a period of time: it is almost frightening to see the duplications of our behavior which occur in young children.

The simplest example of accidental modeling occurs when we perform or reinforce a behavior without realizing that we are under observation. The way to prevent such accidents is to be aware that others are watching and are affected by what we do.

A more subtle problem is that persons observing a behavioral interaction may perceive the situation differently than the participants in that interaction. In such cases, even though the interaction may provide satisfactory results for the persons directly involved, the observers may experience undesirable impacts.

Summary of Vicarious Learning

Vicarious learning occurs when an observer's behavior is influenced by consequences that occur to a model. All the principles of behavior modification can be applied vicariously as well as directly. There are four separate types of vicarious learning: (1) the modeling effect, when the observer directly imitates a behavior displayed by the model; (2) the eliciting effect, when the model's behavior triggers a related but distinct behavior in the learner; (3) the disinhibitory effect, in which the observer performs an already known but inhibited behavior after seeing a model perform it; and (4) the inhibitory effect, in which the observer stops performing a behavior after seeing a model punished for performing it.

Introduction to Vicarious Learning <<You are here>>
Scaffolded Instruction