individual & developmental differences in learning

• weakness for how observing models lead to different learning experience

  • environmental factors may not be the only explanation for learning aggression
  • kendler (2015) found that identical twins had higher concordance rates in their aggression than non-identical twins so suggests differences in aggressiveness may be due to genetics not only modelling
  • SLT is an incomplete explanation for learning aggression
• weakness of how rewards and punishments lead to different learning experiences

  • operant conditioning only explains how existing behaviours are strengthened or weakened
  • does not show where behaviours come from (learning of new behaviours
  • shows operant conditioning is still not a full explanation for behaviour
• what are individual differences in learning

  people differ because of different environmental influences & experiences e.g: rewards and punishments and models observed - phobias, watson & rayner
• phobia acquisition

  • can be learned through association
  • what is required to produce a phobia is an UCS producing a strong emotional reaction (fear) and a situation where an UCS can become associated with a NS so differences in the way the environment influences learning due to experiences individuals have
  • e.g: child is scared when watching a film in the cinema, they may associate the film with dark environment of the cinema and then feel fear next time they go to bed as their room is dark
• strength of individual differences

  • watson and rayner
  • found phobias can be learned as they conditioned little albert to fear white rats using principles of classical conditioning
• individual differences in phobia acquisition also learnt through observation if an individual's role model displays a fear response to a particular stimulus e.g: dog so likely to imitate them
• strength of individual differences

  • bandura (1963)
  • found that the reinforcement and punishment of adult models aggress towards a bobo doll, were imitated by children who watched them especially if the models were reinforced for aggressive behaviour
• what are developmental differences in learning

  rewards and punishments & SLT
• development through rewards and punishment

  • different patterns of reward e.g: positive and negative reinforcement used to shape desirable behaviour e.g: getting a child to complete their homework
  • method of successive approximations explains how complex behaviour are learnt by breaking them down into simple behaviours e.g: steps to learning how to write
  • schedules of partial reinforcement can explain why someone becomes addicted to gambling e.g: gambling games use variable ratio schedule (behaviour reinforced after an unpredictable amount of times)
• strength of developmental

  • skinner box test
  • found learning occurs through reward and punishment as rat learnt to press the lever to get the reward after being punished by pressing the wrong lever
• social learning theory

  • development is through observation of others
  • according to bandura. children develop aggressive behaviour through social learning of adult models important to them e.g: parents, siblings
  • behaviour which is learnt through multiple repetitions is childhood is likely to be retained in memory and repeated when individual is motivated to do so
• strength of SLT

  • bandura (1961)
  • boys were more likely to imitate aggressive behaviour when they saw the male model aggressing towards the bobo doll and effect was more evident when model was rewarded for aggressive behaviour