What term describes learning by watching another individual?

The term that describes learning by watching another individual is observational learning.

It is a form of social learning in which an animal or person observes a model, remembers what happened, and may later reproduce the behavior. Learning and performance are not identical: an observer can acquire information without immediately acting on it.

Psychologist Albert Bandura made the concept especially influential through his social learning research. His 1961 Bobo doll experiment suggested that children could imitate aggressive behavior after watching an adult model, even without being directly rewarded. Bandura described attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation as important processes.

Observational learning is broader than simple imitation. An animal may learn where food is, which object is useful, or what actions produce a result without copying every movement. This is why fixed action patterns, latent inhibition, and classical conditioning are different concepts, even though they can sometimes interact with social learning.