Self-modeling and children's cognitive skill learning.

Abstract

Article: Bandura (1982Bandura ( , 1986 contended that psychological procedures change behavior in part by creating and strengthening perceived self-efficacy, or personal beliefs about one's performance capabilities in a given domain. Self-efficacy influences choice of activities, effort expended, persistence, and task accomplishments. Individuals acquire information about their self-efficacy through their actual performances, vicarious (observational) experiences, forms of persuasion, and physiological indexes (e.g., heart rate, sweating).Observation of models is an important vicarious source of efficacy information. The effect on observers depends in part on perceived similarity to models (Schunk, 1987). Festinger (1954) hypothesized that, where objective standards of behavior are unclear or unavailable, observers evaluate themselves through social comparisons with others. The most accurate self-evaluations derive from comparisons with those similar in the ability or characteristic being evaluated. Observing similar others succeed raises observers' self-efficacy and motivates them to try the task. Model attributes (e.g., age, perceived competence) often are predictive of performance capabilities (Bandura, 1986). Similarity is especially influential when individuals are uncertain about their capabilities, as when they lack task familiarity and have little information on which to base efficacy judgments or when they have experienced difficulties and possess doubts about performing well.Given that ability-related behaviors are highly susceptible to peer influence (Davidson & Smith, 1982), an adult's flawlessly modeled demonstration may not promote self-efficacy in students who have experienced learning difficulties and who view the teacher as superior in competence. Peer models who students believe are similar in competence to themselves may better promote students' self-efficacy for learning. Schunk and Hanson (1985) found that children who observed a peer model learn to solve subtraction problems developed higher self-efficacy for learning than did children who observed an adult model the same operations.Model-observer attribute similarity is heightened when one is one's own model (Bandura, 1986). Self-modeling refers to behavioral change that derives from observing oneself on videotapes that portray only desired (target) behaviors (Dowrick, 1983;Hosford, 1981). In a typical experiment, subjects are videotaped individually as they perform behaviors, after which they view their own tapes. Tapes can capture existing behaviors by having subjects role play or perform previously learned skills or can portray behaviors created with editing (deleting errors) and illusory techniques (using camera angles that obscure aid from others). Self-modeling has been used to train physical, vocational, communication, teaching, and social-personal skills (Carroll & Bandura, 1982;Davis, 1979;Dowrick & Dove, 1980;Dowrick & Hood, 1981;Dowrick & Raeburn, 1977;Fuller & Manning, 1973;Hosford & Mills, 1983;Miklich, Chida, & Danker-Brown, ...

Example-Based Learning: Integrating Cognitive and Social-Cognitive Research Perspectives

“…Finally, an extreme form of model-observer similarity is attained in self-modeling, in which children watch (edited) videotapes of themselves performing the model behavior, which has proven highly effective (and as effective as peer modeling) in promoting academic and behavioral skills (Schunk and Hanson 1989; for a review, see Hitchcock et al 2003).…”

Improving Written Language Performance of Adolescents With Asperger Syndrome

“…Participants watch themselves in videos in which they accurately perform a targeted skill (Dowrick, 1999). Video selfmodeling has been used to improve academic skills such as on-task behavior (Clare, Jenson, Kehle, & Bray, 2000), reading fluency and comprehension (Hitchcock, Prater, & Dowrick, 2004), and math performance (Schunk & Hanson, 1989 …”

Trajectories of Self-efficacy and Achievement Goals: A Developmental Approach

“…2, No. 2;2012 involved expert modeling (Schunk, 1987;Schunk & Hanson, 1985, 1989Schunk, Hanson, & Cox, 1987) and verbal discourse (e.g., ability: "You're very good at this, Tom!") (Schunk, 1982(Schunk, , 1983(Schunk, , 1984.…”