Question

George is trying to teach his two-year old son to gently caress their cat. George softly strokes the animal and every time his son does the same, he rewards him with kind words like "good job!" The child is very attentive during the process and claps his hands when his father praises him. However, as soon as George leaves, the boy lunges for the cat and grabs it by the tail. Which process of social-learning theory is failing?

a. attentional processes
b. justification processes
c. retention processes
d. reinforcement processes

Answer 1

Letter C is correct. Retention processes.

The failure in the social learning process is in the retention process. This process occurs when the behavior is not remembered after observation. This is what happens when George's son does not repeat proper behavior with the cat when not being observed, because he does not remember. To avoid this failure it is necessary to reproduce the learning process until a memory is formed to identify the expected behavior.