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The ABC of social learning: Affect, behavior, and cognition
Thibaud Gruber1, Marina Bazhydai2, Christine Sievers3
1Swiss Center for Affective Sciences.
Psychological Review
|July 22, 2021
Summary
Integrating affect into social learning models is crucial for understanding human and animal behavior. Affective social learning (ASL) offers a framework to bridge cognitive and behavioral approaches, explaining cultural achievements and evolutionary continuity.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral science
- Developmental cognitive science
- Affective science
Background:
- Social learning research in behavioral and cognitive sciences has overlooked affective influences.
- Existing approaches to social learning in animals (behavioral) and human development (cognitive) present irreconcilable differences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose a novel framework, affective social learning (ASL), integrating affective, behavioral, and cognitive aspects of learning.
- To demonstrate how ASL can advance debates on the unique characteristics of human social learning.
- To provide a unified model for understanding knowledge transmission across species and developmental stages.
Main Methods:
- Review of literature in animal behavior and human developmental cognition.
- Introduction of the Affective Social Learning (ASL) framework.
- Analysis of how ASL integrates affective, behavioral, and cognitive (ABC) components of learning.
Main Results:
- Affective aspects are essential for a complete model of social learning.
- ASL provides a complementary approach to behavioral and cognitive perspectives.
- The ABC of social learning (affective, behavioral, cognitive) offers a comprehensive view of knowledge transmission.
Conclusions:
- Affective social learning (ASL) offers an integrative approach to understanding social learning.
- ASL can explain both evolutionary continuity in social learning and unique human cultural achievements.
- This framework lowers cognitive thresholds, aiding understanding of non-human animals and infants, while explaining complex human culture.
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