As social organisms, observational learning connects humans. We learn from and behave like each other, but this mimicking is not perfect. There are individual differences between people and animals. Personality differences and psychological disorders can affect observation learning. For example, much of the research on observational learning has focused on violence and observing violence increases violence in society, but not everyone who observes violence is violent. Cognition plays a role in how we use what we learn.

Practice Questions

MCAT Official Prep (AAMC)

Sample Test P/S Section Passage 4 Question 18

Practice Exam 2 P/S Section Passage 9 Question 56

Key Points

• As social organisms, observational learning connects humans. We learn from and behave like each other, but this mimicking is not perfect as there are individual differences.

• Cognition plays a role in how we use what we learn.

Key Terms

observational learning: learning that occurs as a function of seeing, retaining, and, in the case of imitation learning, replicating novel behavior executed by other people,

cognition: the set of all mental abilities and processes related to knowledge.