Entry 12: Social Learning Theory (and gaming)

          

        Time to get back to my roots as a social-psychologist and talk about something that I have noticed with my precious nearly two year old daughter and the way she picks up on doing things. From the time she was crawling and moving around on her own she has always wanted to be near mommy and daddy and participate in the things we were doing. If we were playing a card game, she wanted her own cards; if we were playing a dice game, she wanted to roll her own dice. She would observe and mimic what we were doing and would smile and laugh about it even though she doesn’t understand everything that was going on. The key thing is that she was watching and learning. If her daddy was playing on the computer, she wanted to use her learning computer and play on it too. 

        Not reaching far into my head that is full of “useless knowledge” I realized that Albert Bandura’s social learning theory is in action. Bandura stated in his book Social Learning Theory "most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions, this coded information serves as a guide for action."

        Joan Crusicm in a 1992 piece, pulled five key tenets to the theory which state the following: 

1. Learning is not purely behavioral; rather, it is a cognitive process that takes place in a social context. 

2. Learning can occur by observing a behavior and by observing the consequences of the behavior (vicarious reinforcement). 

3. Learning involves observation, extraction of information from those observations, and making decisions about the performance of the behavior (observational learning or modeling). Thus, learning can occur without an observable change in behavior. 

4. Reinforcement plays a role in learning but is not entirely responsible for learning. 

5. The learner is not a passive recipient of information. Cognition, environment, and behavior all mutually influence each other (reciprocal determinism). 

        You may be saying this is fine and dandy when it comes to kids learning new things but how does that apply to us? Have you ever been introduced to a new game in which someone else swears that it is the best game in the world and easy to play but the moment you sit down to play you are like a deer staring into headlights of an oncoming vehicle? Then, later after playing a game or two, things start to get easier and you begin to understand various strategies. After a little more game play you are able to begin explaining the game to others and even are at the point you become the teacher. Well that, my friends, is a demonstration of social learning theory in a nutshell. 

        Another thing to mention about my wonderful daughter, she would always want to play on our phones and watch her Curious George episodes and movies; so, my sister, gave my daughter her first cell phone. We loaded the PBS app and some learning apps and she would navigate and do everything herself (even getting mad if we try to help her with it). Our daughter is now at the point that even if we are not playing any board/dice/card games and she wants to play, she will grab her dice and cards and play on her own. 

        As a parent of a young child, it is fun to see how my daughter learns, adapts and grows. Seeing all these social psychology theories in action with someone at such a young age further fuels my inner “geekdom.” So remember that if you are introduced to a new game, it is okay to feel overwhelmed at first but once the feeling subsides, let the learning process take full effect and soon you will become a gaming “master” (without using the force).