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Many studies of observational learning involve children. Why?

Observational learning is also called social learning. The main idea is to learn while watching someone else do something (Wood, 2014). Most adults most likely have a career and children that they need to take care of, so they have less time to just sit and learn information. I believe that children learn from watching these adults and that is why most observational learning is studied with children. One famous study conducted with observational learning and children was Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment. In this experiment, a group of children watched a short movie of a man being aggressive towards a doll they call Bobo. Then the children were split into groups. In each group, the movie continued with a different ending. These endings included: reward, neutral control, and punishment. After all the movie watching was finished, the children were each placed in the same scenario as the first movie, with a Bobo doll. All of the children seemed to become aggressive towards the doll, no matter what film the watched in the second part of the experiment (Wood, 2014). The conclusion and theory that resulted from this experiment is that children learn from imitation. We have all seen children imitate their parents or movies. If it were an adult, most likely they would think things through before imitating someone else. If you look up observational learning online, most of the time you will come across Bandura’s theory. In the first step of this theory, he explains that “children” observe something. He does not say adults or animals; he specifically says, “children”. I feel it is because children are in the process of learning behaviors. An adult or animal will already have acquired numerous behaviors. The difference is that a child would learn a behavior through observation instead of needing a reward or discipline in that field. An adult or animal cannot learn a new behavior, but modify a behavior that has already been learned.

References:
Wood, L. (2014). Observational learning in children. Retrieved from http://www.livestrong.com/article/155023-observational-learning-in-children/