Vicarious learning has been credited with playing a pivotal role in child development. The process encourages children to observe others and assimilate behaviors, as a result of which they learn habits of socialization and etiquette. They pick up nuances of language and numbers, and become aware of diverse activities. Vicarious learning also betters the memory. As children observe others they retain aspects of the surroundings and behaviors they see. Parents, teachers and peers are the main enforcers of vicarious learning in children.
Vicarious learning in the classroom is often used as a means of research. It is used to comprehend and evaluate behavioral patterns in children, and also to study the extent of teacher-student interaction. Classrooms provide an apt setting to examine the extent to which programs and curriculum are being applied and how the students fare in their specific setting.
Business pundits have realized vicarious learning is the new instrument to test the tastes of consumers. Observational learning influences buying behavior. Watching others pick up a certain product is very likely to influence you to give it a try as well. "Online Social Interactions: A Natural Experiment of Word of Mouth Versus Observational Learning," published in the April 2011 Journal of Marketing Research, lines up interesting facts. In particular, the study suggests that observational learning has a larger impact on buying decisions early on in a product lifecycle.
Each workplace is filled with people with different personality types. While some employees may be experienced in and familiar with office behavior, the new entrants may have to use observational learning to discover the tricks of the trade. For many employees, the combination of observational learning and hands-on experience can prove to be instrumental in learning new things and becoming work-savvy.