Question

If your parents modeled cake-baking for you at age 8, but you were not strong enough to hold the mixing bowls and baking dish, etc., and unable to bake on your own until age 10, we might say:

a. You did not learn how to bake a cake until age 10 when you were strong enough to do it alone

b. You may have been able bake a cake at age 8, but you were not cognitively advanced enough to do so alone until age 10

c. You learned how to bake at age 8, but were not physically mature enough to actually bake alone until age 10

d. None of the above

Answer 1

the answer to this would be option ''a: you did not learn how to bake a cake until age 10 when you were strong enough to do it alone.''

by age 8, a child is able to fairly follow instructions and model behavior, so understanding the procedure to bake a cake demonstrated by their parents would not be an impossible task for the child (cognitively). Therefore we can rule out option 'b'.

'Observational learning', or learning through imitating a model, (in this case, a parent) as given by Bandura talks about four stages involved in the learning process,

• paying attention to the model
• carefully observe and remember the action to be imitated
• being intellectually and physically capable enough to imitate the act
• motivated enough to recreate the observed behavior

hence, we rule out option 'c' because the child is not physically capable to 'learn' how to bake a cake so no learning occurs even though parents model the procedure.

Thus option 'a' is the correct answer because, at age 8, the child did not have the physical capability to hold the mixing bowls and baking dish and could not learn how to bake a cake until he developed the necessary strength to do so at age 10.