What is Observational learning?
One way to [[Learning|learn]] new skills is by observing the [[behavior]] of other people or animals. This is called '''Observational learning.''' It is a form of social learning which can take different forms. In [[Human|humans]], this form of learning seems to not need [[Reward|reinforcement]]; instead a social model such as a [[parent]], [[sibling]], [[Friendship|friend]], or [[teacher]] with surroundings is needed. For a child, a model is someone of authority or higher status in an environment. In [[Animal|animals]], observational learning is often based on [[classical conditioning]]. In classical conditioning [[Instinct|instinctive]] behavior is provoked by observing the behavior of another (e.g. mobbing in birds), but other processes may be involved as well. == In humans == Many behaviors that a learner observes, remembers, and imitates are actions that the model does not try to intentionally instill: A child may learn to swear, smack, smoke, and deem other inappropriate behavior acceptable through poor modeling. Albert Bandura claims that children continually learn desirable and undesirable behavior through observational learning. Observational learning suggests that an individual's environment, [[cognition]], and behavior all incorporate and ultimately determine how the individual functions and models. Through observational learning, individual behaviors can spread across a culture through a process called ''[[diffusion]] chain''. This occurs when an individual first learns a behavior by observing another individual and that individual serves as a model for other individuals to learn the behavior.<ref>{{Cite book|url=|title=Psychology|last1=Schacter, Daniel L.|last2=Gilbert, Daniel Todd|last3=Wegner, Daniel M.|date=2011|publisher=Worth Publishers|isbn=978-1-4292-3719-2|edition=2nd|location=New York, NY|pages=295|oclc=755079969|author-link3=Daniel Wegner}}</ref> [[Culture]] plays a role in whether observational learning is the dominant learning style in a person or [[community]]. Some cultures exp