Final answer:
The Bobo doll experiment was essential for showing that observational learning occurs when individuals, especially children, imitate behaviors they have observed, particularly when the behaviors are neither punished nor criticized.
Step-by-step explanation:
The "Bobo doll" experiment was responsible for demonstrating that learning can take place through observing the action of others, specifically through a process known as observational learning. Psychologist Albert Bandura's study involved children and an inflatable doll, showing how children imitated aggressive behaviors modeled by an adult when the adult was not punished, and how they did not imitate those behaviors when the adult was punished, thus not replicating the aggressive acts (vicarious punishment).
Beyond just imitation, observational learning according to Bandura involves cognitive processes such as attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation. This experiment is a seminal piece of evidence supporting the theory that much learning is vicarious, meaning we learn by observing the actions of others and the subsequent consequences. The Bobo doll experiment supports the idea that through the steps of modeling - involving attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation - individuals learn and imitate behaviors.