Critically consider research studies relating to the role of social learning in the behaviour of non -human animals.

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Critically consider research studies relating to the role of social learning in the behaviour of non -human animals.

Kawai (1965) has reported social learning in snow monkeys. His study took the form of a naturalistic observation. And started as a study of social behaviour. Kawai enticed the snow monkeys onto the beach to observe their behaviour more easily, he did this using food. The monkeys learnt that they got food by going to the beach and so began to spend more time there. Over the years Kawai observed that Imo a two year old female monkey began to wash her sweet potatoes in the sea before eating them. She found that they tasted better and so did this all the time. Shortly after th9is other monkeys began to imitate the behaviour and do the same. Over 80% of  2-7 year olds followed Imo’s behaviour yet only 18% of 8+ year olds did, this suggests that the young learn better socially.

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Being a naturalistic observation Kawai couldn’t control any extraneous variables in his study, he could never be sure that social learning caused the other monkeys to imitate Imo.

Also is the fact that operant conditioning plays a role in the findings of this study for two reasons.

The first being that the monkeys only went onto the beach as they were being rewarded to do so, they had learnt the behaviour through rewarding, the key concept of operant conditioning.

Also, Imo found the sweet potatoes tasted better once washed so if other monkeys tried it once and found it ...

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