Author Archives: Julie Anne Johnson

Observational Learning and Children

The concept of observational learning is what makes higher-level animals different from others in the animal kingdom. Observational learning is the ability to learn a concept without direct experience. The observer will simply learn through seeing the task performed.  There are certain neurons within the brain that scientists have discovered while studying observational learning. These neurons were deemed mirror neurons. For someone to engage in observational learning, they need to include four elements into their learning process. First, they must be paying attention and notice the task being performed. Next, they must properly encode the memory of how the procedure or element is performed.  After that, they must be able to properly imitate, or be able to do the task properly. Finally, and often the most important concept, the learner must be motivated, or have the desire to learn.

As discussed in class, children are great observational learners. One experiment in particular, Bandura’s experiment, showcases this well.  In the experiment, an adult proceeded to hit a BoBo doll violently with a hammer and mallet. Next a child would enter the room, and perform the same exact task that the adult has previously displayed. This rectifies that children are great observational learners. This is why often when working with children you must watch how you act, what you say, and how you interact with co-workers.

I work at a summer camp full-time during the summer with about five other counselors. Most of us know how to act properly in front of the kids, but one person in particular displays questionable behavior in front of the children. He often uses foul language and talks about adult topics in front of the campers. But worst of all, he displays rough behavior while playing in the pool.  Rough housing in the water is a very dangerous act to engage in.  I noticed that when he displays this behavior, the campers soon after catch on, and start pushing, shoving and tugging at others while in the water.  Not only does this put the kids and others in dangers, but it also makes reprimanded the children a lot more difficult. Since they saw someone in authority perform this act, they think that it is acceptable, and often argue this when getting scolded by another counselor.

Overall, observational learning is often taken for granted by humans because it comes so naturally to us. It also puts us higher above other animals in the animal kingdom in regards to our learning abilities. Observational learning helps us learn new ideas quickly but this is also a negative when it comes to children picking up bad behaviors when exhibited by adults.

Retroactive Interference

For most high school students, the sound of “vocabulary quiz” makes them cringe. For instance, every Friday through out high school I would have a vocabulary quiz consisting of twenty words. The quiz would be comprised of twenty fill in the blank sentences, without a word bank, so you would have to recall the word, from the context clues given in the sentence. I would usually rehearse these words throughout the week, starting on Monday. But, I also took a French class. We were also assigned vocabulary words in this class, but they were often assigned later in the week then the English vocabulary words.

Finally it was Friday. I had been studying both sets of words, and was pretty confident that I knew the English vocabulary words for my quiz. The quiz began, and all I could recall was the French vocabulary. I was freaking out. I could write down all my French vocabulary words, but could not grasp the English terms. This was an example of retroactive interference. This is when information learned after interferes with information learned earlier. I turned in my quiz with all the French words written down. But, to my surprise, my English teacher let me retake the quiz. She said that she’s seen examples of this a lot with students enrolled in both English and a foreign language. Since I did not leave it completely blank, and showed effort, she would let me take it again. She said I could take it the next morning before school started. She also had some tips for me. She suggested that I just look over the words briefly to jog my memory, and the definitions should come back. She said to review the definitions once, and then go right to bed.  Research has shown that sleeping after studying avoids retroactive interference thus leading to better recall.

The next morning I returned to the desk where I had previously stumbled throughout my quiz. I then breezed through the quiz, and ended up getting a perfect score. Now I make it a habit to briefly review the material I had previously studied the night before the exam, so that information is fresh in my head, and ready to be recalled.

Methodology

During lecture three- Methodology, I made many connections to the classes I took during the first semester. For example when we were discussing random variables, random assignment, correlation research and describing data, I couldn’t help but think about all the things I’ve previously learned. For example, to increase the chances of having a random sample and making sure random assignment occurs, you want to take random sample. First of all, random assignment is the key to experimentation and minimizes individual differences. When utilizing random assignment, each person has an equal chance to be in any condition of the experiment. There are various ways you can sample including, stratified, cluster, and systematic sampling. For example, stratified sampling is breaking up the sample into group, and randomly taking one sample from each group. Clustered is breaking the sample into groups, but taking all of the individuals from one group and they are considered the final sample (Shumway). To understand the methodology of psychology, how to read data, and how to understand and interpret data, its beneficial to take a statistics course beforehand. During the fall semester, I also took Intro to Sociology, and we discussed the different types of descriptive behavior. We spent a lot of time discussing case studies, which take an individual or small group and study them in great detail. I automatically remembered a discussion on Laud Humphreys’s Tea Room case study. Humphreys studied the impersonal sexual acts of men in public restrooms. He studied a group of about one hundred men, but wanted to investigate a few more deeply. This is the point were the ethics of the case study become jeopardized. Humphreys recorded the license plates of the men who engaged in the tearoom trade, and a year later, he changed his garb and purchased a new car. He deceived the participants in posing as a social health worker, and going door to door to gain information about their personal lives (Scheuble) This case study is one of the most controversial in the sociological world and portrays the ethical problems that sometimes occur within case studies whether it be within sociology or psychology.

As with anything, making connections helps you remember academic material a lot better. For example, I’ll better understand describing data if I make the connections back to my statistics class. I’ll always make the connection to The Tea Room Trade because it’s a substantial case study that describes the ethical issues that can occur while conducting case studies.

 

Works Citied

Scheuble, Laurie “Introduction to Sociology” The Pennsylvania State University Fall 2013

Shumway, Durland. “Random Sampling.” The Pennsylvania State University. Fall 2013