A Cognitive Perpective on How People Learn: Implications for Teaching Geoff Norman, Ph.D. McMaster...
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Transcript of A Cognitive Perpective on How People Learn: Implications for Teaching Geoff Norman, Ph.D. McMaster...
A Cognitive Perpective on How People
Learn: Implications for Teaching
Geoff Norman, Ph.D.
McMaster University
The Cognitive Perspective
“The essence of intelligence is less a matter of reasoning and more a matter of knowing a lot about the world”
H.A.Simon, 1989
expertise
Teaching MUTES Memory and Understanding Transfer Exercises Skills
Some assertions about learning Learning and remembering results from
assimilation of new knowledge into existing knowledge, and meaning is critical to learning
Transfer (applying old knowledge to new situations) doesn’t happen easily
Structured, planned, practice with multiple examples is key to transfer
General skills don’t exist – it’s all imbedded in knowledge
Learning and Understanding Learning is strongly influenced by the
meaning . If we can understand what we are learning
in terms of pre-existing knowledge, better learning and retention results
Meaning is a consequence of the interaction between learner and ‘to be learned’
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time. And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot: Full of sound and furySignifying nothing
W. Shakespeare, Macbeth, V, v
Sound is walking, stage struts and a tale is heard. No more a poor candle, frets life. A brief idiot, fury and shadow, is in a dusty fool.
drswa gtrus hdrkl opono rluta
sflta dnaro lensa bfdoa radit
sogfv sonap vfhoe qpofs cpoas
Meaning is imposed by the learner and involves an interaction between existing knowledge and new information
The procedure is quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities, this is the next step. It is better to do too few things at once than too many. At first it seems complicated, but soon it just becomes a fact of life. After it’s over, you arrange the materials in groups again, then put them in the right place.
Washing Clothes The procedure is quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities, this is the next step. It is better to do too few things at once than too many. At first it seems complicated, but soon it just becomes a fact of life. After it’s over, you arrange the materials in groups again, then put them in the right place.
Evidence of the Role of Meaning Chess
Nephrology
How do you get to be a chess master?
Is it:- learning the rules?
- learning to think of more moves and deeper strategy? (process)
- learning to think better moves? (knowledge)
Recall of Chess Positions 4 levels of chess player
mid-game positions
5-7 sec exposure
Recall after 5 sec. Exposure(real positions)
0
5
10
15
20
25
/24
<1600 16-2000 20-2350 >2350
Skill level
Recall after 5 sec. exposure
0
5
10
15
20
25
/24
<1600 16-200020-2350 >2350
Skill level
RandomReal
It’s not just Visual Patterns Lab data, nephrology problems
5 research associates 6 students 5 experts
Recall of Nephrology Data
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
/20
NOVICE EXPERT
Expertise
RandomReal
Basic science and meaningWhy do students need basic science?
Some docs use it a lot? Nephrologists, anesthesiologists, intensivists
Many docs use it a little? With difficult problems
It may provide meaning and coherence for students…….
Basic Science and Meaning(Woods, Brooks, Norman, 2003)
4 neurology / muscular diseases
36 medical students Basic Science or Symptom/Disease
probability
Measurement Diagnostic Test
15 cases, 4-6 features
Administered at 0, 7 days
Score on Dx Test
30
35
40
45
50
55
Immediate 1 Week
Feature ListBasic Sci
Score on Dx Test
30
35
40
45
50
55
Immediate 1 Week
Feature ListBasic Sci
Score on Dx Test
30
35
40
45
50
55
Immediate 1 Week
Feature ListBasic Sci
Basic science is used to construct and reconstruct coherent relations between symptom and disease
Summary Remembering for meaningful material is
enhanced because there are more links or pathways to the memory trace
Implications for Teachers
How can we, as teachers, help students impose meaning on what they’re learning?
Implications for Curriculum What are we doing now?
“Traditional” PBL
Does PBL enhance learning” MACRO -- no or maybe
MICRO: Active Learning Imbedding problem Everyday analogy
Effect of active, problem-oriented processing(Needham & Begg, 1991)
Intro psychology students, 5 classic problems
“Try to solve these difficult problems” ( 27% successful)
vs.
“Remember the problem and solution so you can solve some additional problems”
(21% successful)
Effect of Active Problem-solving
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Problem-oriented Memory oriented
Needham & Begg, 1991
Imbedding Principle in Problem
(Ross & Kilbane, 1997)Practice and Test problems with: SEQUENTIAL
Principle explanation, then problem example
IMBEDDED Principle imbedded in problem, explanation as part of problem
“Reversal” = using original principle incorrectly
Reversal Errors
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Sequential Imbedded
Analogy in Learning Science(Donnelly & McDaniel, 1993)
48 students, 12 concepts
Literal description of concept vs. description + analogy in familiar domain (e.g. pulsar star and lighthouse)
24 MCQs; 4/concept, 12 basic +12 inference
72
74
76
78
80
82
84
86
No analogy Analogy
RecallInference
An application in Medical Education
Laplace Law:
Anybody remember LaPlace Law?
Anybody understand it?
Pressure and Tension on a Membrane
P
T
r
T = P * rLaw of Laplace
The “weight and string” problem
W
Ta
T = W / 2 sin(a)
T T
W W
T = W / 2 sin(alpha)
a
T
T
t
t
Dual Explanations (Krebs, Dore, Norman, 2006) Three “Laws”
Laplace , Right Heart Strain, Starling
Intervention Mechanical + Biological Active Comparison vs. Biological explanation only
Test 9 diagnostic cases Sample -- undergrad psych students
Percent Correct
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Dual Biological
Explanation
Implications for Teaching/ Curriculum Arrange learning to integrate with prior
knowledge Active learning Problem – based learning Imbed principle in problem Everyday analogy
Sequencing of concepts
Transfer
using old knowledge to solve new problems
As teachers, we act as if all the knowledge we impart to students will be available to them to solve problems in the future
As teachers, we act as if all the knowledge we impart to students will be available to them to solve problems in the future
Unfortunately….. it won’t
Views of Transfer
General Transfer (1900-1915….)
Subjects like Latin, algebra teach general “habits of mind”
(disproved by Thorndike, 1913)
Specific transfer (Behaviorism,1910--> Now)
Learned concepts can only be transferred if new behavior = old behavior
(disproved by Judd, 1908, Wertheimer, 1959, Pressley 1990)
Intermediate / hybrid transfer
Learned concepts can be applied (with difficulty) to new, dissimilar problem situations
A general wishes to capture a fortress located in the centre of a country. There are many roads radiating from the fortress. All have been mined so that, while small groups of men can pass over the roads safely, a large force will detonate the mines. A full-scale direct attack is therefore impossible. The general’s solution is to divide the army into small groups, send each down a different road, and have the groups converge simultaneously on the fortress.
You are a doctor faced with a patient who has a malignant tumour in his stomach. It is impossible to operate on the tumour. X-rays can be used to destroy the tumour. If sufficient rays reach the tumour all at once, the cancer cells will be killed, but surrounding tissue will be damaged as well. How can you arrange the procedure to destroy the tumour cells without severely damaging the surrounding tissue. Gick & Holyoak, 1980
Transfer and Context Specificity
The initial solution (multiple simultaneous paths) was learned in, and stored with the problem context (fortress and army).
To solve the new problem, must recognize that the old problem was analogous to the new, despite different contexts
To recognize analogy, we must recognize similarity in deep structure
this rarely happens…..
Why not just teach them the principle? Teach the principle, then give them an
example of the principle
“…during early learning, the principle is only understood in terms of the earlier example… the principle and example are bound together. Even if learners are given the principle or formula, they would use the details of the earlier problem in figuring out how to apply that principle to the current problem”
Brian Ross
Effective Use of Practice Examples
Multiple examples vs. “Principle + Example”
Active Compare and Contrast vs. Separate (Gentner, 2003, Holyoak,1989)
Multiple Examples vs. Principle + Example MBA Students , negotiation problem
Factor 1 Two cases, implicit principle vs.Principle +
Case
Factor 2 Read case and principle (on successive
pages) vs. Compare Case and Principle
Loewenstein& Gentner, 2003
Effect of Examples and Comparisons
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Compare No Compare
Two CasesCase + Principle
Gentner, 2003
Implications for Teaching
Transfer can be facilitated by use of examples during initial learning
multiple examples > principle + example compare and contrast Active search for deep structure
Transfer, examples and practice Critical to learning, transfer is the opportunity
to see the concept arise in multiple contexts This can only arise with multiple practical
exercises
What can we do to enhance the value of practice?
Strategies to Optimize Practice
Mixed vs. Blocked Practice (Hatala, 2002)
Distributed vs. Blocked Practice(Schmidt &Bjork,1992)
What do you need to do stats?
An Observation:
With the availability of sophisticated statistical software, the central issue facing the statistics student is “ What test do I use?”
To learn this, students have to see data sets, think of possible strategies, and get feedback
What do you get in stats courses? Instructional time occupied by equation
proving, formula remembering
Practice at end of chapter of the form: “Do a t test on these data”
So when do you do a t test?
At the end of the t test chapter
The solution
Mixed practice
Mixed vs. Blocked Practice
In the face of ambiguous features (which are subject to reinterpretation), and multiple categories, students must learn the features which discriminate one category from another, not those which support a particular category
Mixed vs. Blocked PracticeHatala, 2000
ECG Diagnosis -- 3 categories 6 examples / category
Blocked
Review, then 6 examples/category
Mixed
Review, 2/category, 12 (4 x 3) practice
TEST 6 new ECGs
Accuracy -- %
05
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
4550
Mixed Blocked
Timing and Sequence of Learning
Would you rather learn to skate (type, play violin, speak Spanish):
1 hour/day, biweekly, for 60 weeks = 30 1 hour / day for 3 days/wk for 10 wks = 30 3 hours/day, 1 day/week, 10 weeks = 30 6 hours/day, 5 days, 1 week = 30
Massed vs. Distributed Practice
Massed All learning takes place at one time
Distributed Learning takes place over multiple
occasions
Massed vs. Distributed
(Raman, McLaughlin, 2010)
20 GI residents
Nutrition course
- 4 hr, one 1/2 day vs. 1 hr. 4 1/2 day
Multiple choice test, 0, + 1 wk., + 3 mo.
05
10
1520
2530
35
No of items recalled
Change 0-1 wk Change 0 - 3 mo
Condition
Massed vs. Distributed
DistributedMassed
Implications for Teaching Practice is critical for learning and transfer
to impose meaning on concepts to overcome “context specificity” to enhance transfer
Some practice works better than others Mixed >> blocked Distributed >> Blocked
Exercises, Experience and Expertise
The critical role of deliberate practice in acquisition of expertise
Is practice just a matter of learning to apply the rules? remember the chess master!!!!
How long does it take to learn chess?
To learn the rules ---- 10 hr.?
To become an expert ---10,000 hr. / 10 yr.
Experts know about 50,000 strategies (Ericsson, 2004)
Age and Skilled Chess Performance
Ericsson and Charness, 1998
How long does it take to learn to play:- Violin- Piano- Field Hockey
*
*
How long does it take to learn to play doctor?
Age and Diagnostic Accuracy
Hobus & Schmidt, 1993
How many years after you finished specialty training before you felt yoou were competent?
Who do you choose? Dr. JS. finished residency last year and was
in top 5 on cardiology RCPS exam?
Dr. KT finished residency 10 years ago and was in top 1/3 on cardiology RCPS exam?
What does the clinician gain from years of experience?
Years of experiences
Is Expertise Just a Matter of Applying the Right Rules?
Experienced clinicians are poorer than recent graduates on formal tests (of the rules) But no one picks a recent graduate for their doc
Experience provides a storehouse of prior examples
A DIAGNOSTIC TASKWhat are all these
things?
A DIAGNOSTIC TASKWhat are all these
things?
chairs,
(of course)
What makes something a chair?
What are the rules of chairs
(as distinct from sofas, stools, tables)
The rule describes this….
Does it cover these…?
We can recognize chairs quickly, accurately, and effortlessly
But we can’t easily verbalize the rule
When we try, it’s incomplete
HOW COME?
Similarity and recognition of everyday objects When we recognize everyday objects,
the process is effortless, seemingly unconscious.
We are not aware that we are eliciting or weighting individual features
The process appears to occur all at once (Gestalt)
Familiar Categories Rapid, effortless, accurate recognition
- despite massive within – category variation- despite no overt understanding of rules
Unfamiliar Categories Slow, effortful, inaccurate recognition
Despite NO within – category variation Despite an explicit and simple additive rule
Exemplar Theory - Medin, Brooks Categories consist of a collection of prior
instances identification of category membership based on
availability of similar instances Similarity is “non-analytic” (not conscious), hence
can result from objectively irrelevant features Ratings of typicality, identification of features, etc.
done “on the fly” at retrieval
Effect of Similarity (Allen, Brooks, Norman, 1992)
24 medical students, 6 conditions
Learn Rules Practice rules
Train Set A Train Set B(6 x 4) x 5 (6 x 4) x 5
Test (9 / 30)
Accuracy by Bias Condition
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Bias Corr Bias Incorr
CorrectIncorrectOther
Hatala et al, ECG Interpretation Medical students/ Fam Med residents PRACTICE (4/4 + 7 filler)
middle aged banker with chest pain
OR elderly woman with chest pain
Anterior M I
TEST ( 4 critical + 3 filler) Middle aged banker
Left Bundle Branch Block
RESULTSPercent of Diagnoses by Condition
05
101520253035404550
Correct Prior
Diagnosis
Per
cent
men
tion
ing
BiasNo bias
Implications for Teaching Practice with examples is critical in
ambiguous domains
Practice results in a collection of exemplars as a problem-solving resource
What happened to Skills? Any measure of “problem-solving”,
“reasoning”, “critical thinking”, “clinical judgment”, etc. correlates across problems at about 0.1-- 0.3.
Process measures of the above show no gradient with expertise
Recurring ThemesLearning
Human learning and remembering is critically sensitive to the meaning the learner imposes on the “to be learned”
Recurring Themes Transfer of concepts to new, dissimilar
problem situations does not occur effortlessly or frequently
Enhanced by active learning, search for principles, multiple practice examples
Impeded by learning for memory, passive learning, single example
Recurring Themes
Formal conceptual knowledge is insufficient for expertise
Experience provides an array of prior examples to draw from and reduce memory load
Recurring ThemesKinds of Knowledge
Expertise is more a matter of having the right knowledge (both formal and experiential) and being able to mobilize it, than of any general skills
Thinking depends on specific, context-bound skills and units of knowledge that have little application to other domains….. The case for generalizable, context-independent skills that can be trained in one context and transferred to other domains has proven to be more a case of wishful thinking than hard, empirical evidence.
Perkins & Salomon, 1989
Conclusion
“The problem-solving difficulties of novices can be attributed largely to the inadequacies of their knowledge base and not to limitations in their problem-solving capabilities”
R. Glaser, 1984
We have discussed a number of strategies to improve the knowledge base
The End
Thanks