A Cognitive Perpective on How People Learn: Implications for Teaching

1. A Cognitive Perpective on How People Learn: Implications for Teaching Geoff Norman, Ph.D. McMaster University

2. GOALS • To explore theories of cognitive psychology related to learning, transfer and problem-solving • To examine implications of these theories for teaching

3. The Cognitive Perspective thinking “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

4. Teaching MUTES • Memory and • Understanding • Transfer • Exercises • Skills

5. Some assertions about learning and recall • 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 • Experience is critical in everyday and expert performance • General skills don’t exist – it’s all imbedded in knowledge

6. 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’

7. The Jeopardy Challenge • (Picture removed) of two Jeopardy contestants

8. Watson • (Picture removed) of Watson the computer

9. Watson definition available at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watson_(computer)#Hardware Watson can process 500 gigabytes, the equivalent of a million books, per second. Watson has much faster reaction time. The humans were notified by a light, which took them tenths of a second to perceive. Watson could activate the buzzer within about 8 millisecond.

10. But when he’s wrong he’s spectacularly wrong…. • Trebeck: • This U.S. city has two airports named after a World War 2 pilot and a WW2 battle. • Watson • What is Toronto? (it’s Chicago – Midway and O’Hare)

11. So Watson, reading a million books a second, and button-pushing in 8 msec., can beat Ken….just. How can Ken be so gosh-darn good?

12. Meand myiBook CPU speed 1/5 sec. 1/2000,000,000 sec. RAM 3 bytes 4,000,000,000 bytes ROM ?inf 250 Gb

13. We should be less impressed that computers can do about as well as humans than that humans can do as well as computers, given the large architectural disadvantages they suffer from. Paul Johnson , Medinfo 1977

14. The Secret Ingredient ………meaning….

15. 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 fury Signifying nothing W. Shakespeare, Macbeth, V, v

16. 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.

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19. Meaning is imposed by the learner and involves an interaction between existing knowledge and new information

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. Evidence of the Role of Meaning • Chess • Nephrology

23. 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)

24. Recall of Chess Positions • 4 levels of chess player • mid-game positions • 5-7 sec exposure

25. Recall after 5 sec. Exposure(real positions)

26. Recall after 5 sec. exposure

27. It’s not just Visual Patterns • Lab data, nephrology problems • 5 research associates • 6 students • 5 experts

28. Recall of Nephrology Data

29. Summary • Remembering for meaningful material is enhanced because there are more links or pathways to the memory trace

30. Implications for Teachers How can we, as teachers, help students impose meaning on what they’re learning?

31. 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

32. 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)

33. Effect of Active Problem-solving Needham & Begg, 1991

34. 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

35. Reversal Errors

36. 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

38. An application in Medical Education

39. Pressure and Tension on a Membrane r P T T = P * r Law of Laplace

40. The “weight and string” problem T a T = W / 2 sin(a) W

41. T = W / 2 sin(alpha) T T a W W

42. t T T t

43. 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

44. Percent Correct

45. 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

46. Transfer using old knowledge to solve new problems

47. As teachers, we act as if all the knowledge we impart to students will be available to them to solve problems in the future

48. 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

49. 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

50. 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.