Exam 6: Conditioning and Learning

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Albert Bandura's work with children and Bo-Bo dolls demonstrated that learning could occur without reinforcement through his famous Bobo doll experiment. In this experiment, Bandura showed children a video of an adult aggressively interacting with a Bo-Bo doll, such as hitting it with a mallet, while also being verbally aggressive. After watching the video, the children were allowed to play with the Bo-Bo doll themselves.

Bandura found that the children who had watched the aggressive adult were more likely to imitate the same aggressive behavior towards the Bo-Bo doll, even without any reinforcement or encouragement. This demonstrated that learning can occur through observation and modeling alone, without the need for reinforcement to shape behavior. Bandura's work with children and the Bo-Bo dolls challenged the traditional behaviorist view that learning only occurs through reinforcement, and instead showed that observational learning plays a significant role in the development of behavior.

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The Premack principle, also known as "Grandma's rule," states that a preferred activity can be used to reinforce a less preferred activity. In other words, a person is more likely to engage in a less preferred activity if it leads to the opportunity to engage in a preferred activity.

For example, a parent can use the Premack principle by allowing their child to play video games only after they have finished their homework. In this case, playing video games (the preferred activity) acts as a reinforcement for completing homework (the less preferred activity). By using the Premack principle, the child is more motivated to complete their homework in order to gain access to the preferred activity of playing video games.