About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about social learning theory as an alternative to the behaviourist approach to learning, focusing in particular on: (i) Albert Bandura’s concept of ‘vicarious reinforcement’ which describes a process in which we learn by observing others perform a certain behaviour and receive a reward; (ii) how Bandura’s famous ‘Bobo doll’ experiment investigated the mechanisms of vicarious reinforcement in children; (iii) the four ‘mediational processes’ which, according to Bandura, influence whether vicarious reinforcement takes place being attention, retention, reproduction and motivation; (iv) identification as a factor in social learning; (v) how it accounts for us modelling our behaviour not only on the people around us but also those who are not physically present in our environment, such as celebrities.

About the lecturer

Martyn Quigley is a Teaching Associate in the School of Psychology at the University of Nottingham. His research interests include the mechanisms which underpin learning in a whole manner of circumstances, and how these can be linked to applied settings (e.g. educational and medical settings). He is also interested in the philosophy of science and how this relates to psychology and the replication crisis.