|
Table of Contents for:
7. Behaviorism: Vicarious reinforcement and teaching machines |
Your location： Home Page > (3) Three major trends of learning psychology > 7. Behaviorism: Vicarious reinforcement and teaching machines
> Vicarious Reinforcement
◆Vicarious Reinforcement◆Albert Bandura is a psychologist from Canada. He is known for introducing Self Efficacy: people's perception of their ability to exercise control over their actions and others. When behaviorist psychology was dominant in the 1970s, he confirmed by experiment a theory that people can learn by observing others' actions in addition to their own actions being reinforced by teachers. He established the field of Observational Learning (known as Social Learning Theory or modeling). Vicarious Reinforcement is the concept of people wanting to imitate the behavior of someone by observing him/her being rewarded as a result of a certain action (in other words, people are to be reinforced vicariously). The concept is similar to a proverb, "You can better yourself by observing others." He theorized people can also learn by hearsay or reading without direct experience.  Site for reference
The idea of Vicarious Reinforcement is often used in a method to construct a message of a public campaign, which urges people to change their attitude. A professional basketball player adored by the youth, for example, gives a PR message that warns of the dangers of drug use. He says in a commercial or other media that "he owes his success to having refrained from using drugs in his youth." While it is common to get users to appear and praise the effects of a certain product in a commercial, the approach is also based on a concept of Vicarious Reinforcement. We unconsciously come to have our own way of thinking by being reinforced vicariously in diverse ways. Site for reference
|