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Theory
explanation for the mechanisms involved in learning and tells us why the factors are important for learning
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Behavioral Learning
relatively permanent change in behavior as a result of experience
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Cognitive Learning
long-term change (or relatively permanent change) in mental representations or associations as a result of experience
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Social Learning Theory
By the 1940’s when some of the limitations of the study of Ss and Rs became apparent, some psychologists pointed out that some people learn by watching and imitating what other people do (and how they do it) modeling
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Cognitive Learning Theory / Cognitivism
In line with theses ideas about limitations of behaviorism, other psychologists argued that to gain a more complete understanding or picture of learning, we needed to study human thought processes (cognition)
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Social Cognitive Theory
Some social learning theorists began to include cognitive processes into their studies of and explanations of learning
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Sociocultural Theory
this reflects Vygotsky’s and others’ ideas that (a) humans have developed elaborate cultures over time, (b) we pass along what has been learned, acquired, and developed in each culture over time to new generations of learners in those cultures, (c) the language we employ to do this shapes how we perceive and adapt to the world
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Behaviorism Group of terms
Terms below
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Classical conditioning
(by Pavlov) CS paired with UCS before: condition a response by ringing bell: meat-salivate, ring bell-no responsepresent meat and then ring bell-dog salivatesring bell and then present meat-do salivates (start of classical conditioning)ring bell-dog salivates, do repeatedly to extinct cc (may have spontaneous recovery)is a mode of learning that occurs when a conditioned stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus that causes an organism to exhibit an automatic unconditioned response to the unconditioned stimulus. After pairing is repeated (some learning may occur already after only one pairing), the organism exhibits the unconditioned response in response to the conditioned stimulus when presented alone. At this point, the unconditioned response is then known as the “conditioned response” to the conditioned stimulus. Usually, the conditioned stimulus is a neutral stimulus (e.g., the tone of a tuning fork), the unconditioned stimulus is biologically potent (e.g., the sight of food) and the unconditioned response to the unconditioned stimulus (which becomes the CR to the CS) is a reflex response (e.g., salivation). The conditioned response is the learned response to the previously neutral stimulus conditioned stimulus.*differs from operant or instrumental conditioning, in which a behavior that is expressed by the organism in response to an aspect of the environment (e.g., a lever in a Skinner box) is strengthened or weakened, depending on its consequences (i.e., reward or punishment
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Instrumental conditioning
Humans and other animals tend to behave in ways that help bring about desirable and avoid unpleasant consequences
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operant conditioning
response that is followed by a reinforcer (after a certain behavior or reinforcer) is strengthened and therefore more likely to occur again
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neutral stimulus
stimulus to which the organism does not respond in any observable way (bell begins this way)
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unconditioned stimulus
natural response to an unconditioned stimulus (meat)
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conditioned stimulus
what we can a neutral stimulus once it begins to elicit the same response as the unconditioned stimulus (bell once meat brought in after)
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conditioned response
response to the conditioned stimulus (dog comes to bell b/c meat should be there)
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reinforcer
post-response stimulus or event that increases the frequency of that response
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reinforcement
the act of following a response with a reinforcer
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continuous reinforcement
each and every response is reinforced
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intermittent reinforcement
some responses are reinforced and some are not
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punishment 1
add S - involves the presentation of a stimulus, usually a negative one
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punishment 2
remove S - involves the removal of a stimulus, usually a positive one
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contingency
refers to a state in which a conditioned stimulus is likely to be followed by an unconditioned stimulus
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contiguity
refers to an unconditioned stimulus and neutral stimulus/conditioned stimulus are presented at about the same time
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generalization
Soda machine training. conditioned response to unconditioned stimulus - when an organism offers a conditioned response to several neutral stimuli that has one or more common characteristics with a conditioned response (ex: same color, shape, sound, smell, size) they are said to generalize the CS-CR
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shaping or approximation
Make a 3 point shot. Step by step teaching. a strategy used when a learner lacks the skill or inclination to make a particular response. (1st) The first response that resembles the sought response is reinforced, and then reinforced repeatedly until that response is offered fairly regularly. (2nd) Then, only those responses that closely resemble the desired response are reinforced, until only the desired behavior is observed and reinforced. (examples on pg 64)
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extinction
Classical conditioning: conditioned response decreases in frequency and eventually disappears when the conditioned stimulus is repeated without the unconditioned stimulus. Instrumental conditioning: response decreases in frequency when it no longer leads to reinforcement (both naturally and as an intervention)
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spontaneous recovery
conditioned response to conditioned stimulus - the reappearance of a conditioned response after it had been extinguished
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Ratio schedule
a reinforcement schedule in which reinforcers occur after a certain number of response have been emitted/observed
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fixed ratio schedule
reinforcement occurs or is presented after every nth response (after every 3rd response, 3rd after that- 6th, 3rd after that- 9th, etc)
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variable ratio schedule
reinforcement occurs or is presented after a continually changing number of responses (3rd response, 6th after that- 9th response, 9th after that- 18th response, etc)
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extinguishing undesirable conditioned response
controlled and focused use of extinction (continued presentation of a conditioned stimulus without unconditioned stimulus) until conditioned response stops
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counterconditioning desirable response
Replace bite-ing with singing. Can’t do both at same time. Incompatible. replaces a less desirable/productive conditioned response with a more desirable/productive one. This involves (a) selection of a new response that is incompatible with the conditioned response (both response cannot be performed at the same time), (b) the selection of a stimulus that elicits the new response, and (c) the new stimulus that elicits the new response is presented, and the conditioned response that elicits the unwanted conditioned response is gradually introduced.
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Guthrie’s Methods for breaking bad habits
replace stimulus-response connection with another, which Ormrod discusses as “extinguishing” and “counterconditioning”
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Exhaustion method
continue to present the conditioned stimulus until the person is too tired (no longer willing and able) to present conditioned response. Ex: student says something in class, make them stay after school to repeat it over and over and over
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Threshold method
present the conditioned stimulus in a gentler manner that does not elicit the conditioned response. Ex: test anxiety- then present assessment tasks that do not resemble tests and that are enjoyable
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Incompatibilidy method
present the conditioned stimulus under conditions/circumstances when the conditioned response cannot occur, and when a response that is incompatible with the conditioned response will occur. Ex: in a class of highly competitive students, assign students to small groups… and assign each group a task that will require cooperation rather than competition
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Cognition and Motivation in Instrumental conditioning
Many behaviorists now think that instrumental conditioning can be best understood when non-observable mental processes are considered along with stimuli, responses, and reinforcers. The use of phrases such as “paying attention”, “seeking information”, mentally “encoding”, finding “meaning” in response all point to this
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*Social learning theory
human learning involves watching and interacting with other people
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social cognitive theory
focus on what and how people learn from one another. Learning that relies on observing and modeling
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General Principles of Social Cognitive Theory
*people can learn by observing, *learning can occur without a change in behavior, *cognition plays important roles in learning
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vicarious reinforcement
when an observer sees that a model in reinforced for a particular response (behavior) and that increases the observer’s use of that response
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vicarious punishment
when the observer sees that a model is punished for a particular response (behavior) and that decreases the observer’s use of that response
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immediate and delayed immitation
behaviors learned through observing others appear immediately or not until a later time
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outcome expectations
what people think is likely (or is most likely) going to happen as a result of their taking specific future actions
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locus of control
extent to which individuals think they can control events that affect them
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efficacy expectations
beliefs about whether they themselves can execute particular behaviors successfully
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self-efficacy for learning vs. performance
Learning = I can learn this if I put my mind to it; performance = I already know how to do this
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weak self-efficacy
meet consistent failure in a particular domain and tend to have little confidence in their ability to succeed in that domain in the future
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resilient self-efficacy
once people have developed a high sense of self-efficacy, an occasional failure isn’t likely to dampen their optimism very much; when successful people encounter small setbacks on their way to achieving success they learn that sustained effort and perserverance are key ingredients for that success
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individual vs. collective self-efficacy
collective= people have greater self-efficacy when they work in a group that when they work alone, and especially when they achieve success as a group
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situation-specific vs generalized self-efficacy
specific situation high or low efficacy, where general you just think you can do great things! ???
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facilitation effect
an increase in the likelihood or actual occurrence of an observed behavior where there has been vicarious reinforement
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inhibition effect
a decrease in the likelihood or actual occurrence of an observed behavior where there has been vicarious punishment
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disinhibition effect
when an individual engages in previously forbidden behavior after observing models avoid punishment and/or receive reinforcement
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Conditions necessary for effective modeling to occur (4)
attention, retention, motor reproduction, and motivation
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role of attention
each person must be paying careful attention to the model and to specific aspects of that model’s behavior
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role of retention
the observer must remember the behavior (and specific features of the behavior) that was displayed by the model
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role of motor reproduction
(physical ability) an imitation by the observer of the actual behavior modeled
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role of motivation
(intrinsic) learners must want to observe, retain, and demonstrate behaviors that have been modeled for them
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self-regulation
own ideas about appropriate and inappropriate behavior, choose their actions accordingly
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setting standards and goals
mature human beings tend to set standards for their own behavior; in other words, they establish criteria regarding what constitutes acceptable performance. They also identify certain goals that they value and toward which they direct many of their behaviors
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self-observation
observe onself in action. Need to know what parts of their performace are working well and what parts need imporvement
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self-evaluation
judge and evaluate own behaviors based on the standards they hold for themselves
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self-reaction
self-praise (tell yourself you did a good job) and self-criticism (need to do better next time) can be as influential in altering behavior as the reinforcements and punishments that others administer
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self-reflection
reflect on and critically examine their goals, past successes and failures, and beliefs about their abilities, and they make any adjustments to goals, behaviors, and beliefs that seem warranted
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self-instructions
give themselves verbal cues. Helps students pick up dance moves, etc.
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self-monitoring
observe and assess own responses. Record yourself to see changes needed. Use a beep every 45 secs to see if you are on task
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self-reinforcement
giving themselves a treat or special privilege when they behave in a desired fashion and withholding reinforcement when they don’t
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self-imposed stimulus control
to increase a particular desired behavior, an individual might be instructed to seek out an environment in which that behavior is most likely to occur. Also vice versa to quit smoking. Remove areas to smoke to illiminate behavior
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limits of behavioral theory to social-cognitive theory
????? *observer is reinforced by model, *observer reinforced by 3rd person, *imitated behavior itself leads to reinforcing consequences, *consequences of the model’s behavior affect the observer’s behavior vicariously
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role of cognitive factors in social learning
*learning involves a mental (rather than behavioral) change, *certain cognitive processes are essential for learning to occur, *learners must be aware of existing response-consequence contingencies, *learners form expectations for future response-consequence contingencies, *learners also form beliefs about their ability to perform various behaviors, *outcome and efficacy expectations influence cognitive processes that underlie learning, *the nonoccurrence of expected consequences is an influential consequence in and of itself
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*Cognitive: Tolman’s cognitive maps
learn where different parts of the environment are situated in relation to one another (like rats in a maze)
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Gestalt Psychology
emphasized the importance of organizational processes in perception, learning, and problem solving
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Basic ideas from gestalt psychology (4)
*perception is often diff from reality, *the whole is more than the sum of its parts, *an organism structures and organizes experience, *an organism is predisposed to organize experience in certain ways
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law of proximity
people tend to perceive as a unit those things that are close together in space ex: one very high way vs. on every highway
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law of similarity
people tend to perceive as a unit those things that physically resemble one another (group items that look the same)
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law of closure
fill in missing pieces to form a complete picture (50% of word missing but still know what it says)
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verbal learning theorists
sought to explain language-based learning based on analyses of human languages and verbal behavior
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serial learning
when people learn a set of items in a particular sequence
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serial learning effect
a common and predictable pattern in which the first (primary effect) and the last (recency effect) in a set/series are learned more quickly and easily than the middle items in the set
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retroactive and proactive inhibition
when people learn two sets of paired associates in succession, their learning of the second often diminishes their ability to recal the first set. Sometimes difficulty in the second as well.
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retroactive and proactive facilitation
learning one set of information may actually improve the recall of information learned at another time
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overlearning
???
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distributed practice
???
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information processing
how people thing about the information they receive from the environment- how they perceive the stimuli around them, how they “put” what they’ve perceived into their memories, how they “find” what they’ve learned when they need to use it, and so on.
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constructivism
each of us responsible for our own learning, we add info in our own brain, self-directed
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individual constructivism
constructivism occuring separately within each learner
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social constructivism
people work together to create new knowledge
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contextual learning
learners often think and perform more intelligently and effectively when they draw on a variety of environmental support systems that enable them to make sense of new situations and help them tackle challenging tasks and problems (use of calculators, computers, diagrams, etc. to help analyze data or solve problems)
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situational learning
???
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*Piaget’s Theory Key Ideas (7)
*children are active and motivational learners, *children organize what they learn from their experiences, *interaction with the physical environment is critical for learning and cognitive development, *interaction with other people is equally critical for learning and development, *children adapt to their environment through the processes of assimilation and accommodation, *the process of equilibration promotes progression toward increasingly complex forms of thought, *children think in qualitatively different ways at different age levels
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schema (schemes)
groups of similar actions or thoughts that are used repeatedly in response to the enviroment. things that children learn and can do are organized as schemes
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schemata (cognitive structures)
as children develop, new shemes emerge, and existing schemes are repeatedly practiced, occasionally modified, and sometimes integrated with one another into cognitive structures
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heredity and maturation
???
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active experience
???
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social interaction
???
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equilibrium
comfortably interpret and respond to new events using existing schemes
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disequilibrium
sort of mental discomfort that spurs them to try to make sense of what they observe. Happens when they encounter situations for which their current knowledge and skills are inadequate
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equilibration
process of moving from equilibrium to diequilibrium and back to equilibrium again. Promotes progression toward increasingly complex forms of thought
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Developmental Stages (4)
- sensorimotor stage (birth-2): schemes primarily entail perceptions and behaviors. Understand of the world based on their physical interactions with it, 2. Preoperational Stage (2-6 or 7): many schemes symbolic quality, children can think and talk about things beyond their immediate experience. Begin to reason about events but not always logical, 3. Concrete Operational Stage (6 or 7 - 11 or 12): acquire cognitive structures that enable them to reason in logical, adultlike ways about concrete, reality-base situations. Realize their own perspectives are not necessarily shared by others. Formal Operations Stage (11 or 12 - adulthood): think logically and contrary-to-fact situations. Acquire capabilities essential for advanced reasoning in math and science.
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What does this mean? Operational and operations???
???
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assimilation
entails responding to and possibly interpreting an object or event in a way that consistent with an existing scheme
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accommodation
1) modify an existing scheme to account for the new object or event or 2) form an entirely new scheme to deal with it
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Critiques of Piaget’s assignment of ages to stages
Bad= vague, underestimation and overestimation of age ranges for each stage (dev. disorders, giftedness, etc), relationships between prior experiences/knowledge on dev.and learning in diff subjects and domains, influences of prevailing culture and development, influence of schooling on development. Good= cognitive devlopment is constrained by maturation, cognitive learning is tied to active experiences in one’s environment
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*Vygotsky’s Theory Key Ideas (9)
*Some cognitive processes are seen in a variety of species; others are unique to humans, *through both informal conversations and formal schooling, adults convey to children the ways which their culture interprets and responds to the world, *every culture passes along physical and cognitive tools that make daily living more effective and efficient, *thought and language become increasingly interdependent in the first few years of life, *complex mental processes emerge out of social activities, *children appropriate their culture’s tools in their own idiosyncratic manner, *children can accomplish more difficult tasks when they have the assistance of people more advanced and competent than themselves, *challenging tasks promote maximum cognitive growth, *play allows children to cognitively stretch themselves
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cultural transmission of languages and tools
???
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interaction with adults
???
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play and other social activity
???
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self-talk (private speech)
talk to themselves aloud, play important role in cognitive dev, helps to guide and direct their own behaviors through difficult tasks and complex maneuvers
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inner speech
evolution of self-talk, children talk to themselves mentally rather than aloud. Others can no longer see or hear them? hence, self-regulation
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actual level of development
upper limit of tasks that they can perform independently without help from anyone
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level of potential development
upper limit of tasks that they can perform with assistance of a more competent individual
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zone of proximal development
range of tasks that children can’t yet perform independently but can perform with the help and guidance of others
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Comparison of Piaget and Vygotsky in book
Common: qualitative changes in nature of thought, challenge, readiness, importance of social interaction Differences: to what extent is language essential for learning and cognitive development?, what kind of experiences promote learning and development?, what kinds of social interactions are most valuable?, how influential is culture?
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*Two-Stage Model of Learning
??
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cognitive learning
the acquisition of new information or skills that involves a long-term change in mental representations or associations
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memory
the ability to recall previously acquired information and skills
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encoding
the ways in which the content and/or form (organization) of the new information is changed by each person for storage
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storage
the process of putting new information/skills into memory
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retrieval
the process by which each person “finds” the information that has been stored
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sensory register
holds anything that is sensed (incoming information) long enough for it to undergo some initial cognitive processing
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capacity
large, even at an age as early as 6 months
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duration
sensory input is stored in the sensory register for a short time
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forms of storage
it is stored in the same form in which it was sensed (ex: visual input in visual form, auditory input in auditory form)
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attention and working memory
???
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Factors that influence attention:
motion, intensity (color and sound), novelty (new and unsual), incongruity (something that does not fit), social cues (signs, text messages, verbal and non-verbal messages), emotion (associated with event and/or social cues), and personal significance
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capacity
very limited capacity
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Chunking
process of combining pieces of information into related groups which can increase the amount of information that can be stored
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forms of storage
form usually depends on how the information was gathered by the senses (verbal info in auditory form)
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duration
short-lived (less than 30 secs)
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organization
chunking when two or more pieces of info are combined
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retrieval
usually easy and automatic but depends on how much is there? may have to scan
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maintenance rehearsal
process of repeating information in the form of which it has been stored and in which the person wants to “keep it alive”
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long-term memory
most complex component of the human memory system
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complexity
most complex, has been studied more in-depth than sensory register or working memory
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capacity
virtually unlimited
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forms of storage
many, for ex: language, sensory images, nonverbal abstractions and meanings
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duration
sometimes almost permanently, but unknown and argued because difficult to test
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critiques of 2-stage model
???
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alternates to 2-stage model
???
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implicit learning
?
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informal learning
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formal learning
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factual knowledge
?
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conceptual knowledge
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procedural knowledge
?
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meta-cognitive knowledge
?
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Bloom’s Taxonomy
?
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pre-existing knowledge and preconceptions
?
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active learning
?
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meta-cognitive approaches
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rote knowledge
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inflexible knowledge
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flexible knowledge
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critical thinkning and problem solving
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transfer of learning
?
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attribution theory
?