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the following decades. The research was presented under a variety of labels such
as observational learning, social learning, as well as modeling and imitation (for
reviews, see Bandura, 1977; Rosenthal & Bandura, 1978; Rosenthal & Zimmerman,
1978). Earlier work and controversies were largely overlooked (see Rosenthal &
Zimmerman, 1978). Although some early proponents of experimental psychology
emphasized vicarious learning as an important contributor to both human learn-
ing and development (Baldwin, 1906; Humphrey, 1921; James, 1890; McDougall,
1926), others strongly opposed the notion that any new knowledge could be acquired
vicariously (Smith & Guthrie, 1921; Thorndike, 1911; Watson, 1914). Thus, vicar-
ious learning (mostly imitation) received some attention during the first half of the
twentieth century (e.g., Hull, 1920; Miller & Dollard, 1941), but it remained outside
the mainstream prior to the 1960s. Although Bandura's (1963) work brought vicari-
ous learning into the mainstream of experimental psychology, work in the following
couple of decades did not address issues of current concern, so our selected review
will focus on more recent research.
This recent research was fueled by cognitive theory and emphasized more com-
plex learning processes (Bandura, 1977). Our survey will begin with research that
focused exclusively on specific features of vicarious learning environments that
have been show to promote comprehension and learning. In a later section we will
illustrate related work in which researchers added the requirement that learners
engage in various overt activities designed to supplement vicarious learning pro-
cesses (Chi et al., 2008; Ge & Land, 2003; Hausmann & VanLehn, 2007; Mayer &
Chandler, 2001; Rummel & Spada, 2005). Examples of these overt activities include
engaging in scripted collaboration (Rummel & Spada, 2005), asking or answering
questions (Ge & Land, 2003), and controlling the flow of input information (Mayer
& Chandler, 2001; Rummel & Spada, 2005). Some (combinations) of overt activi-
ties in these environments clearly enhanced learning outcomes. Few attempts were
made, however, to specify which specific overt activities were actually responsible
for the improved performances, and even fewer attempts were made to implement
vicarious analogs of the activities. In our selective review of this research we will
attempt to identify specific overt activities that supported learning outcomes and
highlight how these overt activities may be readily implemented in multimedia
environments suitable for applications of the kinds considered here.
Environmental Features Supporting Vicarious Comprehension
and Learning
Focus on Comprehension
Comprehension and understanding are, of course, fundamentally involved in all
aspects of learning, so when we attempt to construct new knowledge from an input
stream any factors that affect our comprehension of that stream are fundamental.
