When an animal is given a task to complete, it is almost always more successful after observing another animal doing the same task before them. Experiments with several different species have shown the same effect: animals can learn behaviors from peers. However, there is a need to make a difference between the propagation of behavior and the stability of behavior. An animal might show the behaviour just once. In this case, the behaviour is not stable. Research has shown that social learning can spread a behavior, but there are more factors regarding how a behaviour is spread from one generaton of animals to the next, in an animal culture.
Experiments with ninespine sticklebacks showed that individuals will use social learning to locate food.
A study in 1996 at the University of Kentucky used a foraging device to test social learning in pigeons. A pigeon could access the food reward by either pecking at a treadle or stepping on it. Significant correspondence was found between the methods of how the observers accessed their food and the methods the initial model used in accessing the food.
The University of Washington studied this phenomenon with crows: There is a tradeoff between acquiring costly information firsthand and learning that information socially. Using social learning is easier for the individual, but there is a risk of inaccuracy. The experimenters exposed wild crows to a unique “dangerous face” mask as they trapped, banded, and released 7-15 birds at five different study places around Seattle, WA. An immediate scolding response to the mask after trapping by previously captured crows illustrates that the individual crow learned the danger of that mask. There was a scolding from crows that were captured that had not been captured initially. That response indicates conditioning from the mob of birds that assembled during the capture.
Learning from peers is called horizontal social learning, learning from parents is called vertical social learning. Horizontal social learning is consistent with the lone crows that recognized the dangerous face without ever being captured. Children of captured crow parents were conditioned to scold the dangerous mask, which demonstrates earning from parents. The crows that were captured directly had the most precise discrimination between dangerous and neutral masks than the crows that learned from the experience of their peers. The ability of crows to learn doubled the frequency of scolding, which spread at least 1.2  km from where the experiment started to over a 5-year period at one site.
Observational learning allows for new skills to be learned in a wide variety of areas. Demonstrations help the modification of skills and behaviors.
When learning skills for physical activities can be anything that is learned that requires physical movement, such as learning a sport, learning to eat with a fork, or learning to walk. There are multiple important factors that help with modifying physical skills and psychological responses from an observational learning standpoint. Modeling is a factor in observational learning where the skill level of the model is considered. When someone is supposed to demonstrate a physical skill such as throwing a baseball the model should be able to execute the behavior of throwing the ball flawlessly if the model of learning is a mastery model. Another model that can be used is a coping model: This model would show a physical skill that they have not yet mastered or achieved high performance in. Both models are found to be effective and can be used. These models can be used as interventions to increase observational learning in practice, competition, and rehabilitation situations.
Recent research in neuroscience has shown that mirror neurons are the basis for observational learning. These specialized visuomotor neurons fire action potentials when an individual performs a motor task and also fire when an individual passively observes another individual performing the same motor task. In observational motor learning, the process begins with a visual presentation of another individual performing a motor task, this acts as a model. The learner then needs to transform the observed visual information into internal motor commands that will allow them to perform the same motor task; this is known as visuomotor transformation. Mirror neuron networks provide a mechanism for visuo-motor and motor-visual transformation and interaction. Similar networks of mirror neurons have also been implicated in social learning, motor cognition and social cognition.
Scott Lilienfeld
Scott O. Lilienfeld (December 23, 1960 – September 30, 2020) was an American psychologist. He was a professor of psychology at Emory University and support for evidence-based treatments.
He was known for his book "50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology". His works have been seen on "The New York Times", "The New Yorker", and "Scientific American".
Lilienfeld has made television appearances on "20/20", CNN and the "CBS Evening News".
Lillienfeld died on September 30, 2020 from pancreatic cancer in Atlanta, Georgia at the age of 59.
Jacques Brunhes
Jacques Brunhes (7 October 1934 – 30 September 2020) was a French politician. He was a member of the French Communist Party. Brunhes was born in Paris.
He represented Hauts-de-Seine in the National Assembly from 1978 to 2007. Between 2001 to 2002, he was the Minister of Tourism. Before, between 1987 to 2001, he was Mayor of Gennevilliers.
Brunhes died on 30 September 2020 at the age of 85.
Lou Johnson
Louis Brown Johnson (September 22, 1934 – September 30, 2020) was an American baseball player. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1965, he became a World Series champion. His career lasted between 1960 to 1969.
Johnson played for the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Angels, Milwaukee Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, Cleveland Indians and California Angels.
Johnson died on September 30, 2020 in Los Angeles, just one week after his 86th birthday.
John Jenkins (American politician)
John Jenkins (May 29, 1952September 30, 2020) was an American martial artist, motivational speaker, community organizer, and politician. He was born in Newark, New Jersey.
He was the first African American Mayor of Lewiston, Maine from 1994 to 1998, a Member of the Maine Senate from 1996 to 1998 and the Mayor of Auburn, Maine from 2007 to 2009.
Jenkins unsuccessfully ran for Governor of Maine in 2018 as an Independent, losing to Democrat Janet T. Mills.
Jenkins died on September 30, 2020 at the age of 68.
Leonard Mastroni
Leonard A. Mastroni (May 28, 1949 – September 30, 2020) was an American politician. He was a Republican member for the 117th district in the Kansas House of Representatives from 2017 to 2020. Mastroni was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Mastroni died on September 30, 2020 in La Crosse, Kansas at age 71.
White Fawn's Devotion
White Fawn's Devotion: A Play Acted by a Tribe of Red Indians in America is a silent film. It was filmed in 1910, in the USA. James Young Deer wrote and directed the film, but is not credited for this. His wife, Lillian St. Cyr is credited for playing Princess Red Wing as "White Fawn". The lead woman does not fit St. Cyr's description, so few people believe she played in the film. The movie was shot in New Jersey at 24fps.
"White Fawn's Devotion" is the earliest surviving film directed by a Native American. It was one of the earlier films French company Pathé shot in America. A reviewer in the "New York Dramatic Mirror" wrote that the film "proves to be interesting if we can forget the New Jersey scenery" and noted that "it is not quite clear where the devotion comes in, nor of what it consists.".
In 2008, the movie was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".