Observational, cognitive, verbal and skill learning

Observational learning (also called social learning or modelling) was shown by Albert Bandura. Children watched a short film in which an adult hit and kicked a large inflatable 'Bobo' doll. One group saw the adult rewarded, a second saw the adult punished, and a third saw no consequence. Then each child was left alone with the doll and secretly observed.

• Children who saw aggression rewarded were the most aggressive.
• Those who saw it punished were the least aggressive.
• This is more than imitation: we learn from the consequences that follow a model's behaviour. All the children had learnt the aggressive acts; whether they performed them depended on the consequences they had seen.
• This is why the role models children see on screen, rewarded or admired for their behaviour, can shape what they do.

Cognitive learning is a change in what the learner knows, not just what the learner does. Two forms:

• Insight learning (Wolfgang Kohler): chimpanzees in an enclosure, with food out of reach, roamed about, then suddenly stacked boxes or used a pole to get it. The solution came in a sudden flash, not by slow trial and error, and once found it could be repeated and applied to new problems. We feel the same 'aha' moment when the answer to a puzzle we have been stuck on suddenly becomes clear.
• Latent learning (Edward Tolman): something is learnt but not shown in performance until there is a reason to show it. Tolman showed this with rats in a maze. People do it too: a child driven to school every day forms a cognitive map, a mental picture of the route, and can later walk it alone the day it is needed.

Verbal learning is learning words and their associations, found only in humans. Three methods are used to study it:

• Paired-associates learning: the learner learns pairs, a stimulus word and a response word (like a word in a new language and its meaning), then must give the response word when shown the stimulus.
• Serial learning: a list must be learnt and recalled in the order given.
• Free recall: words are recalled in any order. Items at the beginning and end of the list are usually remembered best.

What affects verbal learning: the length of the list; the meaningfulness of the material (real words are learnt faster than nonsense syllables, which is why understanding beats cramming); and the total time principle (more total study time means more learning). Learners also organise material: Bousfield found that words from mixed categories (fruits, animals, colours) are recalled in clusters by category, called category clustering.

Skill learning. A skill is the ability to perform a complex task smoothly and efficiently, like typing or playing badminton. Paul Fitts described three phases:

• Cognitive phase: understanding and memorising the instructions (where to place each finger on the keyboard).
• Associative phase: linking sensory inputs with the right responses through practice; errors fall and the time taken drops.
• Autonomous phase: the skill becomes automatic and needs less attention; an experienced typist types while talking.
• Progress is not always smooth: a period of no improvement is called a plateau, and continued practice usually carries the learner past it.