Defining Learning Relatively permanent change in behavior or
Defining Learning • Relatively permanent change in behavior or mental state based on experience – Relatively permanent change: Can be altered with future learning – Behavior: Some response to a situation or event – Mental state: knowledge, attitude, belief, strategy
What is learning? • Gagné believed that an external observer could recognize learning by noting behavioral changes that remains persistent over time (Gagné, 1974) • He also stated that maturation is not learning because the individual does not receive stimulation from the outside environment (Gagné, 1974). • Learning has two parts, one that is external to the learner and one that is internal (Gagné, Briggs, & Wager, 1992)
The Events of Learning • Gagné described learning as a series of 8 phases that the learner goes through but is unaware of (Gagné, 1974) – – – – Motivation Phase – Expectancy Apprehending Phase – Attention Selective Perception Acquisition Phase – Coding: Storage Entry Retention Phase – Memory Storage Recall Phase – Retrieval Generalization Phase – Transfer Performance Phase – Responding Feedback Phase -- Reinforcement
Principles of Learning • Contiguity – The stimulus situation must be presented simultaneously with the desired response. • Repetition – Learning is improved with repetition and retention is more certain • Reinforcement – Learning is strengthened when it is followed by a reward (Gagné, Briggs, & Wager, 1992)
Five Categories of Learning • Gagné identifies five categories of learning: – Verbal Information – Intellectual Skills – Cognitive Strategies – Attitudes – Motor Skills
Overview of Gagne’s Theories (Cont’d) • • • · Verbal information: Reciting something from memory · Intellectual skills: • Discrimination: Recognizing that two classes of things differ • Concrete concept: Classifying things by their physical features alone • Defined concept: Classifying things by their abstract (and possibly physical) features • Rule: Applying a simple procedure to solve a problem or accomplish a task • Higher-order rule: Applying a complex procedure (or multiple simple procedures) to solve a problem or accomplish a task · Cognitive strategies: Inventing or selecting a particular mental process to solve a problem or accomplish a task · Attitudes: Choosing to behave in a way that reflects a newly-acquired value or belief · Motor skills: Performing a physical task to some specified standard
Verbal • Stating previously learned materials such as facts, concepts, principles, and procedures • Critical Learning Conditions – Draw attention to distinctive features by variations in print or speech. – Present information so that it can be made into chunks. – Provide a meaningful context for effective encoding of information. – Provide cues for effective recall and generalization of information.
Intellectual Skills • Discriminations: Distinguishing objects, features, or symbols, e. g. , hearing different pitches played on a musical instrument • Concrete Concepts: Identifying classes of concrete objects, features, or events, e. g. , picking out all the green M&Ms from the candy jar • Defined Concepts: classifying new examples of events or ideas by their definition, e. g. , noting "she sells sea shells" as alliteration • Rules: Applying a single relationship to solve a class of problems, e. g. , calculating the earned run averages (ERA) of the Atlanta Braves • Higher Order Rules: Applying a new combination of rules to solve a complex problem, e. g. , generating a balanced budget for a state organization
Intellectual Skills (cont. ) • Critical Learning Conditions – – – Call attention to distinctive features. Stay within the limits of working memory. Stimulate the recall of previously learned component skills. Present verbal cues to the ordering or combination of component skills. Schedule occasions for practice and spaced review. Use a variety of contexts to promote transfer.
Cognitive Strategies • Employing personal ways to guide learning, thinking, acting, and feeling • Critical Learning Conditions – Describe or demonstrate the strategy. – Provide a variety of occasions for practice using the strategy. – Provide informative feedback as to the creativity or originality of the strategy or outcome.
Attitude • Choosing personal actions based on internal states of understanding and feeling • Critical Learning Conditions – Establish an expectancy of success associated with the desired attitude. – Assure student identification with an admired human model. – Arrange for communication or demonstration of choice of personal action. – Give feedback for successful performance; or allow observation of feedback in the human model.
Motor Skills • Executing performances involving the use muscles • Critical Learning Conditions – Present verbal or other guidance to cue the executive subroutine. – Arrange repeated practice. – Furnish immediate feedback as to the accuracy of performance. – Encourage the use of mental practice.
Types of Learning Classical conditioning: learning to link two stimuli in a way that helps us anticipate an event to which we have a reaction Operant conditioning: changing behavior choices in response to consequences Cognitive learning: acquiring new behaviors and information through observation and information, rather than by direct experience
Associative Learning: Classical Conditioning How it works: after repeated exposure to two stimuli occurring in sequence, we associate those stimuli with each other. Result: our natural response to one stimulus now can be triggered by the new, predictive stimulus. After Repetition Stimulus: See lightning Response: Cover ears to avoid sound Stimulus 1: See lightning Stimulus 2: Hear thunder Here, our response to thunder becomes associated with lightning.
Associative Learning: Operant Conditioning § Child associates his “response” (behavior) with consequences. § Child learns to repeat behaviors (saying “please”) which were followed by desirable results (cookie). § Child learns to avoid behaviors (yelling “gimme!”) which were followed by undesirable results (scolding or loss of dessert).
Cognitive Learning Cognitive learning refers to acquiring new behaviors and information mentally, rather than by direct experience. Cognitive learning occurs: 1. by observing events and the behavior of others. 2. by using language to acquire information about events experienced by others.
Ivan Pavlov’s Discovery While studying salivation in dogs, Ivan Pavlov found that salivation from eating food was eventually triggered by what should have been neutral stimuli such as: § just seeing the food. § seeing the dish. § seeing the person who brought the food. § just hearing that person’s footsteps.
Before Neutral stimulus: Conditioning a stimulus which does not trigger a response Neutral stimulus (NS) No response
Before Conditioning Unconditioned stimulus and response: a stimulus which triggers a response naturally, before/without any conditioning Unconditioned stimulus (US): yummy dog food Unconditioned response (UR): dog salivates
During Conditioning The bell/tone (N. S. ) is repeatedly presented with the food (U. S. ). Neutral stimulus (NS) Unconditioned stimulus (US) Unconditioned response (UR): dog salivates
After Conditioning The dog begins to salivate upon hearing the tone (neutral stimulus becomes conditioned stimulus). Conditioned (formerly neutral) stimulus Did you follow the changes? The UR and the CR are the same response, triggered by different events. The difference is whether conditioning was necessary for the response to happen. The NS and the CS are the same stimulus. The difference is whether the stimulus triggers the conditioned response. Conditioned response: dog salivates
Ivan Pavlov’s Legacy Insights about conditioning in general • It occurs in all creatures. • It is related to biological drives and responses. Insights about science • Learning can be studied objectively, by quantifying actions and isolating elements of behavior. Insights from specific applications • Substance abuse involves conditioned triggers, and these triggers (certain places, events) can be avoided or associated with new responses.
E. L. Thorndike 1874 - 1949
E. L. Thorndike First scientific theory of learning- Theory of Connectionism Comprehensive analogy of human learning- Three volume work, Educational Psychology ( 1913 a, 1913 b, 1914 ) Initial work with animal learning in laboratory setting- cat in box experiment”
What happened ? Schunk (2000)
The Cat Learned !!! Behavior Change = Learning
Thorndike’s Theory of Connectionism Law of Effect If Situation + Response is followed by a positive consequence then the connection between the Situation + Response is strengthened. If Situation + Response is followed by a negative consequence then the connection between the Situation + Response is weakened.
In Thorndike’s words: “When a modifiable connection between an situation and a response is made and is accompanied or followed by a satisfying state of affairs, that connection’s strength is increased: When made or accompanied or followed by an annoying state of affairs, the strength is decreased. ” (Thorndike, 1913 b) Note: Thorndike(1932) later modified the Law of Effect when research showed that while positive consequences strengthened connections, negative consequences did not necessarily weaken them. “Spare the reward, spoil the child” by E. L. Thorndike
The Big Idea Consequences of behavior effect behavior, responses resulting in satisfying consequences are learned. Behavioral theories explain learning in terms of environmental events.
Wolfgang Kohler The Foundations of Gesaltism
Kohler’s belief • In the 1920 s, many scientists thought that animals could only learn through trial and error. They thought that when an animal faced a problem, such as finding food, it would stumble around until it hit upon the right answer by trying different actions until it got lucky. But Kohler believed that animals, especially chimps, were much smarter than most people imagined. He believed that chimpanzees were capable of intelligence, and even insight. To test his ideas he did several experiments.
Chimp Experiments • • • To get the bananas, the chimp would have to use an object as a tool. The objects in the play area included sticks of different lengths and wooden boxes. He discovered that chimpanzees were very good at using tools. They used sticks as rakes to pull in bananas places out of reach. And they also used sticks as clubs to bring down fruit hung overhead. Sometimes they stood long sticks on end and quickly climbed up the 7 meters and grabbed the bananas before the stick fell over. The chimpanzees also learned to use boxes as step ladders, dragging them under the hung bananas and even stacking several boxes on top of one another. Kohler's chimps were able to do more than use tools, he actually observed chimps building tools. For example, he observed chimps breaking off branches from a tree to make a "rake. " One of the smartest chimps, Sultan, was given a very difficult problem. Kohler placed a bunch of bananas outside Sultan's cage and two bamboo sticks inside the cage. However, neither of the sticks was long enough to reach the bananas. Sultan pushed the thinner stick into the hollow of the thicker one, and created a stick long enough to pull in the bananas Other chimps have been observed using a short stick to bring in a long stick, and then using the long stick to bring in a bunch of bananas. Kohler believed that these chimps showed insight -- acting as if they "saw" the solution before carrying out the actions. However, not all scientists agree with this idea
The Gesalt Theory • • Kohler had a big influence on the Gesalt Theory The Gestalt theory hypothesizes that an individual’s perception of stimuli has an affect on their response. If two individuals are exposed to identical stimuli, their reactions to it would be different, depending on their past experiences. This was demonstrated in a study showing subjects chess pieces on a game board. They were shown the board briefly and asked to reconstruct what they saw. They were allowed successive brief looks at the board until they were able to reconstruct the entire board. The study found that experienced chess players did better than inexperienced subjects, when the pieces were situated in a way that resembled an actual game, than if the pieces were placed in a random order (Cook, 1993). This study demonstrated that the subject’s past experiences affected their perception of the stimuli and as a result, affected their response to the stimuli, which was their ability to reconstruct the game board. Gestaltists believe that individuals group stimuli in their own perception. This grouping in perception depends on several factors which can be considered the laws of Gestalt theory. The basic law of Gestalt theory, the law of Pragnanz, "implies that if a perceptual field is disorganized when an organism first experiences it, the organism imposes order on the field in a predictable way. There are five other laws related to the law of Pragnanz: (1) Similarity: similar items tend to grouped, (2) Proximity: items are grouped according to the nearness of their respective parts, (3) Closure: completed items are grouped together; (4) Good Continuation: an example would be that straight lines appear to continue as straight lines, and curves as curves; (5) Membership Character: a single part of a whole is defined by the context in which it appears When an individual encounters stimuli, it tries to make sense of the stimuli. An example of this concept is pattern recognition. If we encounter a pattern, such as an incomplete letter, we can still recognize the object as the letter to which we are familiar. In this example, we would use the law of closure to "close" the pattern to create a whole letter. Being able to close the pattern would use our prior knowledge of the letter. Kohler believed that the chimpanzees used their prior attempts to determine their next attempt. Kohler theorized that the monkeys used insight to solve the problem
Gesalt Theory cont’d • In summary, the Gestalt Theory believes individuals use insight and their prior experiences to determine their responses to stimuli. They also use the laws of Gestalt Theory to try to make sense of, and provide order to, information in their perception. This information leaves a trace in memory; traces link together to form connections of information. The Gestalt theory is closely related to the present day cognitive constructivist view of learning. Problem solving is a good choice of instructional methods to use to incorporate the beliefs of the Gestalt theory.
Motivation Defined The following definitions reflect the consensus that motivation is an internal state (sometimes described as a need, desire, or want) that activates behavior and/or thought and gives either or both direction. – An internal state or condition that activates behavior and gives it direction; – A desire or want that energizes and directs goal-oriented behavior; – The influence of needs and desires on the intensity and direction of behavior; – The arousal, direction, and persistence of behavior; – Physiological and psychological factors that account for the arousal, direction, and persistence of behavior (Davis and Palladino, 2005). Modified version of information made available by Professor Bill Huitt on his website. Used here with his written permission
Many explanations have been given for why human beings do what they do: Instincts Drives Excitement/Arousal Goals/Incentives Achievement Self-Fulfillment Friendship/Affiliation These explanations of motivation can be divided into five categories: Arranged by Dr. Gordon Vessels 2004 Power behavioral biological emotional cognitive social
Types of Motivation INTRINSIC VS EXTRINSIC Arrangement by Dr. Gordon Vessels 2004
Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motivators • Intrinsic motivator: » Some behaviors have directly rewarding results » that satisfy drives (e. g. food when hungry, entertainment when bored). Many behaviors are engaged in because they are valued, beneficial to self and/or others, and elicit rewarding feelings (e. g. , pride, self-worth, compassion). • Extrinsic motivator: » Externally available stimulus not related to the » satisfaction of immediate drives, desires, or needs (e. g. money). Includes immediate external environmental consequences of behavior, and others’ encouragement. Slide arranged by Dr. Gordon Vessels 2005 Source: Bell, Vaughan (2002). Motivation and Emotion. PPT slide retrieved from http: //www. cf. ac. uk/psych/home/bellv 1/conf/Vaughan. Motivation. Emotion. Lecture 2004. ppt#5 Accompanying MS Word Lecture at http: //www. google. com/search? hl=en&lr=&q=fast+route+is+quick%2 C+inaccurate&btn. G=Search. Written permission granted.
Sources of Motivation • Explanations regarding the sources of motivation can be categorized as extrinsic (outside the person) or intrinsic (inside the person). • Intrinsic sources can be subcategorized as (a) body (physical), (b) mind (mental), (c) mind (feeling), or (d) transpersonal (spiritual). • Needs are dispositions toward action that are associated with subcategories (a-c) above. • It appears likely that the initiation of behavior may be more related to emotions and/or the affective domain (optimism vs. pessimism; self-esteem; etc. ), while persistence may be more related to conation (volition) or will and one’s goal-orientation. Modified version of information made available by Professor Bill Huitt on his website. Used here with his written permission.
MOTIVATION EXTRINSIC Operant Conditioning INTRINSIC Cognition Social Cognition Affect Biology Conation Spirituality Copied with written permission from Professor Bill Huitt’s. Those interested in locating the works cited in these slides should visit his website at http: //chiron. valdosta. edu/whuitt/col/motivation/motivate. html. Motivation is one of many topics he covers. For a complete list, go to the index at http: //chiron. valdosta. edu/whuitt/edpsyindxc. html. Dr. Bill Huitt is a helpful and informed professor who would be willing to assist you online if you have a question.
Learning, Rewards, and Motivation § Intrinsic motivation refers to the desire to perform a behavior well for its own sake. The reward is internalized as a feeling of satisfaction. § Extrinsic motivation refers to doing a behavior to receive rewards from others. § Intrinsic motivation can sometimes be reduced by external rewards, and can be prevented by using continuous reinforcement. § One principle for maintaining behavior is to use as few rewards as possible, and fade the rewards over time. What might happen if we begin to reward a behavior someone was already doing and enjoying?
Remembering & Forgetting
ORGNIZATION OF MEMORIES • Network theory of memory organization – theory says that we store related ideas in separate categories, or files, called nodes • Associations – linking of nodes or categories of ideas together by making associations or mental roads between new information and old information that was previously stored • Network – thousands of interconnected nodes, which form an enormous cognitive network for arranging and storing files
p 262 NORMAN TRAIN OF THOUGHT
ORGNIZATION OF MEMORIES (CONT. ) • Organization of network hierarchy – refers to the arrangement of nodes or memory files in a certain order or hierarchy – bottom of the hierarchy are nodes with very concrete information, which are connected to nodes with somewhat more specific information, which in turn are connected to nodes with general or abstract information
FORGETTING CURVES • Unfamiliar and uninteresting – forgetting curve measures the amount of previously learned information that subjects can recall or recognize • Familiar and interesting – remembering is partly related to how familiar or interesting the information is
REASONS FORGETTING • Overview: forgetting – refers to the inability to retrieve, recall, or recognize information that was stored or is still stored in long-term memory • Repression – according to Freud, repression is a mental process that automatically hides emotionally threatening or anxiety-producing information in the unconscious, from which repressed memories cannot be recalled voluntarily, but something may cause them to enter consciousness at a later time
REASONS FORGETTING (CONT. ) • Overview: forgetting – poor retrieval cues/poor encoding – retrieval cues are mental reminders that we create by forming vivid mental images or creating associations between new information and information we already know • Interference – common reason forgetting – recall of some particular memory is blocked or prevented by other related memories
REASONS FORGETTING (CONT. ) • Overview: forgetting – Amnesia • may be temporary or permanent, is loss of memory that may occur after a blow or damage to the brain or after disease – Distortion • we misremember something due to memory distortions caused by bias or suggestibility
REASONS FORGETTING (CONT. ) • Interference – Proactive interference • occurs when old information (learned earlier) blocks or disrupts the remembering of related new information (learned later) – Retroactive interference • occurs when new information (learned later) blocks or disrupts the retrieval of related old information (learned earlier)
REASONS FORGETTING (CONT. ) • Retrieval cues – mental reminders that you create by forming vivid mental images of information, or associating new information with information that you already know • Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon – refers to having a strong feeling that a particular word can be recalled, but despite making a great effort, we are temporarily unable to recall this particular information
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