Observational Learning

For psychology, the class had to participate in things outside of the class for a portion of our grade. Participating in these activities outside of the classroom helped me with things inside of class.
The first Elevated Citizen OnTrack event that I went to was on February 22nd. I went to the Senior Wellness & Activity Center and got the opportunity to help the elderly learn how to use an iPad. I taught them how to download games, play the games, take pictures, take videos, and more. Most of them were elderly women, maybe even all of them, but they were really excited when they finally learned how to use an iPad. Seeing the joy in their eyes made me feel good about myself because I was the one that helped put that smile on their faces because …show more content…
And I did the same with every other thing that they wanted to learn, such as playing a game. I let them watch me play, then let them play and that is how they learned how to do it. This method that was used is called observational learning, which is defined as “the acquisition of knowledge and skills through the observation of others (models) rather by means of experience. I was their model that was imitated by them” (pp. 138). I learned that some of their memories weren’t as good as others. Memory has to do with many parts of the brain according to our book. It says that “memory relies on complex neural networks that draw on various parts of the brain. However, some parts of the brain play more specific roles in memory” (pp. 167). The hippocampus is an essential part of the brain for storing new information. And that’s how the ladies learned how to use the iPad. They used their hippocampus to store new information and remember the steps on how to download and play games and take pictures and video. The icons on the iPad were apart of them learning how to navigate through the steps too. The icons were the “metal representations of a visual stimulus …show more content…
There, I go to talk to the elders and play games with them. The first lady I got a chance to hang out with, she explained how she loved the home that she was in and how it was so much better than the last one she was placed in. Just by her talking about the last place that she had been in, I could tell the attitude changes that she had made between the two. According to the Psych book, attitudes are “the enduring mental representation of a person, place, or thing that typically evokes an emotional response and related behavior” (pp. 354). Her attitude towards the last place she was in was kind of nasty and I could tell that that place had a bad reputation, but she talked about the place happily and I could tell that she loved it there. The way she described the places made me understand the different attitudes better. I also got to talk to a man that was involved in war. He told stories from a long time ago that I had no idea how he remember because I can barely remember the things that I did just a few days ago. He remembered them because he was remembering things that psychologists call flashbulb memories. Flashbulb memories are “events that are surprising, important, and emotionally stirring” (pp. 156). Going into war is surprising, important, as well as emotionally stirring. Events that have those qualities are most likely to be remember just because they outweigh those events that