Incidental Learning Theory Summary

In 1961, Albert Bandura, Dorothea Ross, and Sheila Ross focused on a child’s ability to model aggressive actions. Prior to this, studies had shown that incidental learning takes place when an adult to a child demonstrates behaviors. No studies until 1961 had been done that tested whether behavior could transfer to settings where the model was no longer present (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961). His experiments with preschool children are used to focus on the negative outcomes of using aggressive toys and aggressive role modeling on consecutively learned behavior (Drewes, 2008). The researchers established the level of aggression of the children when given the Bobo doll as the dependent variable, which would be ultimately, altered depending on the conditions the children was exposed to, and the gender of the …show more content…
After encouraging the child to play with these new toys the experimenter waits for the child to get interested in the toy and tells him or her that those are their best toys, that she does not let just anyone play with them, and would rather save them for the other children (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961). She then invited the child to go to another room in order to play with other toys and began doing paper work not to interfere with the child’s behavior (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961). The subject spent 20 minutes in the room being observed by judges from a 2-way mirror. The non-aggressive toys were a tea set, crayons and paper, a ball, two dolls, three bears, cars and trucks, and plastic farm animals while the aggressive toys were a 3-foot tall Bobo doll, a mallet and peg board, two dart guns, and a tether ball with a face painted on it while being suspended from the ceiling (Bandura, Ross, & Ross,