Steps in the Modeling Process

Even though observational learning begins with watching someone else, we don’t automatically learn a behavior just by seeing it. Bandura identified four specific steps—attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation—that must occur for modeling to be successful.

the behavioral modeling process

1. First, you must be focused on what the model is doing—you have to pay attention.
2. Next, you must be able to retain, or remember, what you observed; this is retention.
3. Then, you must be able to perform the behavior that you observed and committed to memory; this is reproduction.
4. Finally, you must have motivation. You need to want to copy the behavior, and whether or not you are motivated depends on what happened to the model.
   1. If you saw that the model was reinforced for their behavior, you will be more motivated to copy them. This is known as vicarious reinforcement. On the other hand, if you observed the model being punished, you would be less motivated to copy them. This is called vicarious punishment.

Four-year-old Ellie watches her older sister play with their mother’s makeup and then get scolded. Later, Ellie considers doing the same thing but decides not to—she wants to avoid the punishment she saw.

Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment

Albert Bandura conducted one of the most famous studies in psychology to examine how children learn aggression through observation (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961). He used a five-foot inflatable clown doll—the Bobo doll—as the target of the model’s behavior.

Bandura wanted to know:

• Would children imitate aggressive behavior they observed?
• Would consequences to the model (reward or punishment) affect imitation?
• Would the child’s sex or the model’s sex matter?

Watch the following to see a portion of the famous Bobo doll experiment, including an interview with Albert Bandura.
You can view the transcript for “Albert Bandura Bobo Doll experiment.mp4” here (opens in new window).

Phase 1 of the Experiment: The Observation Phase

The observation phase of the experiment is when the children see the behavior of the adults. Each child was shown into a room where an adult was already sitting near the Bobo doll. 

Children watched one of three scenarios:

1. Aggressive model (treatment): The adult hit, kicked, threw, and even verbally attacked the doll.

2. Non-aggressive model (control 1): The adult quietly played with other toys.

3. No model (control 2): The child saw no adult at all.

Children were positioned so they had a clear view of the adult’s behavior.

Phase 2 of the Experiment: Frustration

Bandura believed frustration might increase the likelihood of aggression, so he briefly allowed children to play with very appealing toys in a second room. Then, just as they became engaged, the experimenter told them: “These are the best toys, and I’m saving them for other children.”

This reliably created mild frustration, setting the stage for Phase 3.

Phase 3 of the Experiment: The Testing Phase

Children were then taken to a third room filled with a mix of:

• Non-aggressive toys (crayons, tea set, trucks)
• Aggressive toys (mallet, dart gun)
• The Bobo doll and hammer—the same items the model used earlier

They were allowed to play freely for 20 minutes. A neutral adult stayed in the room but did not interact with the child. Researchers observed from behind a one-way mirror and recorded:

• Imitative physical aggression
• Imitative verbal aggression
• Non-imitative aggression
• Other play behaviors

Below are the results for the number of imitative physically aggressive acts the children showed on average toward the Bobo doll. These acts included hitting and punching the Bobo doll. On the left, you see the two modeling conditions: aggression by the model in phase 1 or no aggression by the model in phase 1. Note: Children in the no-model conditions showed very few physically aggressive acts and their results do not change the interpretation, so we will keep the results simple by leaving them out of the table.

Table 1. Physical aggression results from Bandura’s experiment

	Male Model: Boys	Male Model: Girls	Female Model: Boys	Female Model: Girls
Aggression	25.8	7.2	12.4	5.5
No Aggression	1.5	0.0	0.2	2.5

The story is slightly, though not completely, different when we look at imitative verbal aggression, rather than physical aggression. The table below shows the number of verbally aggressive statements by the boys and girls under different conditions in the experiment. Verbally aggressive statements were ones like the models had made: for example, “Sock him” and “Kick him down!”

Note: Just as was true for the physically aggressive acts, children in the no model conditions showed very few verbally aggressive acts either and their results do not change the interpretation, so we will keep the results simple by leaving them out of the table.

Table 2. Verbal aggression results from Bandura’s experiment

	Male Model: Boys	Male Model: Girls	Female Model: Boys	Female Model: Girls
Aggression	12.7	2.0	4.3	13.7
No Aggression	0.0	0.0	1.1	0.3