Psychology of Learning

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Psychology of Learning

• Lecture 3 Hierarchy of Experience

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Plan of Lecture 3

• Video excerpt The Mind Thinking.
• Hierarchy of experience (sensation perception
  (video excerpt) imagery symbolisation
  conceptualisation).
• Concepts.

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Reading/s

• Ormrod, J. E. (1995). Human learning (pp. 319
  346). New Jersey Prentice Hall Incorporated.
• Gredler, M. E. (1997). Learning and instruction
  (pp. 143 173). New Jersey Prentice Hall
  Incorporated.

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• Video excerpt
• The Mind Thinking

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The Hierarchy of Experience

• Psychologically, processes of learning can be
  viewed as hierarchies of experience, from the
  most primitive to the intellectual. This term
  implies that for learning to take place, each
  process of learning must be present and
  functioning. Absence of processes bring about
  learning disabilities.

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Hierarchy of Experience

• Sensation
• Perception
• Imagery
• Symbolisation
• Conceptualisation

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Sensation

• Sensation is the lowest level of behaviour as it
  refers only to activation of sensorineural
  structures. It is the first stage in the
  biochemical and neurological events that begins
  with the impinging of a stimulus upon the
  receptor cells of a sensory organ. Detriments at
  this level include deafness and blindness, which
  are peripheral nervous system involvements
  causing sensory deprivation.

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Perception

• Perception is the process of acquiring,
  interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory
  information. For sensation to change to
  perception, attention is a prerequisite.
  Generally we have to interpret what we perceive.
  Many cognitive psychologists hold that, as we
  move about in the world, we create a model of how
  the world works.

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• We sense the objective world, but our sensations
  map to percepts, which are representations of
  external events that affect the senses and which,
  by perceptual processing, cause the activation of
  a certain category in the mind. Percepts are
  provisional and shift when new information is
  acquired.

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• Agnosia is a perceptual disorder, which refers to
  the inability to recognize people or objects even
  when basic sensory modalities are intact
• Visual agnosia Difficulty recognising objects,
  faces and words.
• Auditory agnosia Inability to recognize sounds.
• Somatosensory agnosia Difficulty perceiving
  objects through tactile stimulation.

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• Video excerpt
• The Mind Thinking

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Imagery

• Essentially, imagery is a created picture in
  ones head. It is a cognitive process involving
  perception and memory. It refers to the creation
  (or re-creation) of any experience in the mind
  (auditory, visual, tactile, olfactory, gustatory,
  etc). When thinking about a previous or upcoming
  event, people often use imagery. For example, one
  may ask, "What colour are the curtains in your
  study?" The answer is commonly retrieved by using
  imagery (i.e. by mentally "seeing" the curtains
  in the study).

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• Imagery does not have a unified biological basis
  in the brain. Rather, it is considered as a
  collection of different functions situated in
  various parts of the cerebral hemispheres.
• Remembered imagery is mostly based on what an
  individual has already experienced. People have a
  clear image of those "experienced" things, which
  they can recall at will.
• Imaginary imagery does not seem to have a
  corresponding equivalent in the real world.
  Rather, it is a strange combination of remembered
  images, or of remembered images mixed with
  confabulation (i.e. confusion of imagination with
  memory, and/or confusion of true memories with
  false memories).

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• Imagery can also be based on what has not been
  experienced. In this case, it is commonly used to
  'fill in the gaps' in one's mind. A common
  example of this is a child having nightmares of a
  monster when the room is dark. They can 'imagine'
  a monster coming out of nowhere to attack them.
  Imagery is often used by poets and authors to
  help the reader imagine what is happening and
  helps the reader to become absorbed in the text.

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• With this explanation of imagery in mind, can you
  mention a learning disability wherein one would
  assume that ability to imagine would be impaired?

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Symbolisation

• Symbolic behaviour is unique to human beings. It
  encompasses both verbal and nonverbal types of
  learning and it refers to the ability to
  represent experiences, giving meaning to
  experiences. This also implies the ability to
  realise that something stands for something
  else.

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• All forms of language are innately symbolic, and
  any system of symbols can form a language (e.g.
  sign language).
• Verbal symbolisation Verbal abilities are of
  utmost consequence to psychological processes
  (for instance, what experiences does the word
  love conjure for you?)

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• Non-verbal symbolisation This refers to symbols
  which are commonly present in art, music,
  religion, patriotism, etc (e.g. the crucifix the
  lady with the scales the dove).

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Conceptualisation

• A concept is a mental symbol or an abstract idea
  (e.g. concepts of dogs concepts of beauty,
  etc.).
• Conceptualisation involves both the ability to
  abstract and the ability to categorise. Consider
  the following example.

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The Nature of Concepts

• Behaviourists have defined a concept as the same
  response to different stimuli (e.g. fear and cold
  may both cause shivering).
• In cognitive terms, a concept is defined as a
  category of objects or events that share one or
  more common properties (e.g. deer, horse, cow are
  all examples of quadripeds).

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Two Kinds of Concepts

• Concrete These are defined by their physical
  appearance (e.g. rough elephant).
• Abstract These are best described by a formal
  definition rather than by physical
  characteristics (e.g. an assistant is someone who
  helps).

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• Most people usually learn about concepts in the
  concrete form and then later acquire a more
  abstract definition. This happens through a
  process of generalisation (i.e. shifting
  understanding of a concept to include other
  objects in the same category) and discrimination
  (i.e. the ability to eliminate similar objects).

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• Are these concrete or abstract concepts?
• Courage
• Mug
• Square
• Euphoric
• Sofa
• Work

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• Most concepts are identified by a label. Consider
  the following
• Usually taller and wider than most humans.
• Lives in a cold and white environment.
• Is covered with a furry, white coat.
• Eats seals and walruses.
• Can be aggressive, especially if hungry.

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What makes a Concept?

• Concepts are fully acquired when all positive and
  negative instances related to that concept can be
  identified (e.g. I am a positive concept of a
  human being but a negative concept of a flower).
  

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• People often have a sort-of understanding of
  concepts, in that they cannot always accurately
  distinguish positive instances from negative
  instances. They tend to undergeneralise, which
  reflects an inability to recognise all positive
  instances (e.g. denying that a whale is a mammal)
  or overgeneralise concepts, which reflects an
  inability to reject all negative instances (e.g.
  calling a great Dane, a pony)

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Features of a Concept

• Features (attributes) are the characteristics of
  a concepts positive instances
• Defining features are critical instances which
  must always be present (e.g. all birds have
  wings).
• Co-relational features are essential but not
  always present (e.g. most birds are diurnal).
• Irrelevant features are unrelated to membership
  (e.g. a yellow bird).

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• Highlight the defining, co-relational and
  irrelevant features of the following
• Window
• Summer

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Rules of Defining Features

• While some concepts have a single defining
  feature (e.g. the colour green), others have two
  or more defining features (e.g. a square has to
  have four lines, all of which must be equal and
  at 90 degrees). Others still have no single
  defining feature (e.g. a foul in football).

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• Concept rules specify how defining features are
  combined to define the concepts
• Simple Only one feature (e.g. green).
• Conjunctive Two or more features (e.g. square).
• Disjunctive Features not necessary present all
  the time (e.g. foul).
• Relational The link between two or more features
  makes the concept (e.g. through or middle).

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• What kind of rules govern the concepts
• Window
• Summer