PSYCH 1X03 Lecture Notes - Group Decision-Making, Robert Zajonc, Social Learning Theory
Document Summary
Found that cyclists raced faster when competing against each other in a group, compared to when racing against the clock on an individual time trial. Children also do this when there is not necessarily an award at the end. A group of people watching an individual perform a task. The increased performance that occurs in the presence of co-actors or an audience. However, social facilitation is not true in all cases. It actually hindered performance on tasks such as learning nonsense syllables, completing a difficult maze, or solving complex math problems. How this heightened arousal affects your specific task to be performed. For simple tasks which you have mastered, performance is increased. You learn appropriate behaviours by modeling and imitating the behaviours by modeling and imitating the behaviour of others. From basic conditioning because the behaviours you learn from others do not always require explicit reinforcement to develop.
