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Tape 1-Learning Theory
On this cassette, I will discuss the intellectual aspects of learning. I will give you a
general introduction in which I will discuss such elements of the learning theory as
the learning curve, self-concept, and transfer the set.
Test Anxiety
My second lecture will be on a major barrier to learning, forgetting. I will give
two lectures, one on memorization and one on comprehension. But before I
proceed to lecture on forgetting, memorization, and comprehension, I would like
to introduce you to some general principals and some facts concerning the art of
learning.
A fairly rapid and simplified survey will soon convince you of the value of this
study. For instance, let us consider the curve of learning. Turn to figure four.
Here is one bit of information upon which you can capitalize.
Though most of your college studies are too complex to graph, we can graph the
speed of learning and physical skills, and get some idea about the mode of
progress.
Note that the student here is learning how to type, and has very rapidly gained a
speed of about 110 strokes per minute, after 60 days practice. But then, for the
next 40 days, he stays at about that level, and then begins to improve more
slowly, raising his speed another 50 strokes per minute, over a second 40 day
period.
In summary, one-quarter of the period of learning was spent at a standstill.
This period of standstill is called a plateau. It may be of more or less duration,
but it generally occurs in a process of learning. It is for instance, the experience
of teachers, that most classes will reach a slump period, a period of apathy,
paralysis, disinterest, boredom. Then interest will rouse again.
What practical use is this information?
One answer is that you must not become discouraged and quit when you reach
your plateau.
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Just hold on, and in time there will be a sharp rise in skill and in grade. In my classes, a
student will raise his grade rather rapidly from an F to a D, and then linger for a painfully
long time at that grade. Then in the last four weeks, or so, raise it up to a C.
A second point to remember is that this is happening to other people too. So if you can
break out of your plateau before other members of your class break out of theirs, you
may have a clear advantage, if the professor grades classes by the curve. That is by
comparing performances to one another, such inside knowledge may help you raise your
grade another letter.
The second fact that is very useful to know is that emotions condition learning.
First, let us consider the Thorndike effect. A mild emotional response, negative or
positive, at the moment of learning will help you to remember longer.
To turn to stronger emotions, it is generally correct that the unpleasant is as difficult to
learn as is the pleasant, although, one remembers both about the same length of time.
Thus, you will have to make an extra effort to study material which is unpleasant to you.
You would be best advised to save time and energy, and find some way to make the work
pleasant to you.
One good way is to learn as much as you can about it. For most aversion to college
subjects, students prove ignorance of the subject rather than anything unpleasant in itself
about the subject.
Like or dislike for the professor is a danger. Make the best of the situation. Either
suppress your dislike for him or her, or direct it into competition with him or her by
mastering the subject. Or get out of the class. Negative emotions otherwise will ensure
your failure.
A third point, which is closely related to and often the source of your emotional reaction,
is your self-concept. Small likes and dislikes rapidly grow into large ones. And from
these, a personality evolves. An average child might do well in grade school arithmetic
and poorly in English due largely to the teachers of that subject, rather than to any natural
talent in either.
The likes and dislikes build until we have an adult who believes that he or she is good at
mathematics and bad at English, and therefore, spends all of his or her time at the former
and little at the latter.
A males self-concept may lead him to believe that it's masculine to do well in
mathematics, and not so masculine to do well in English. This self-concept will
predetermine learning, and sometimes it will unnecessarily prevent learning.
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Thus, we often understand only what seems appropriate for us to understand. Women
naturally endowed in the sciences might do poorly in them because they believe that
sciences are unfeminine.
A female engineer is less of a rarity. And there is no concrete evidence that a women
can't handle a job as well as a man.
Self-concept gets in the way and the woman instead becomes a nurse or a secretary,
appropriate, but perhaps unsatisfying jobs. Of course, self-concept is important and
should be developed. It is another word for identity, the goal that you are reaching for
eventually, the finding of self, which will give you your strongest sets of motivation in life.
But don't be so anxious to find yourself that you rapidly adopt a set of prejudices that will
damage your abilities to succeed in college. Involved in arriving at self-concept is what
the psychologists call transfer.
Both negative and positive transfer, the point is worth going into. Transfer is the effect of
earlier learning on later learning.
Old learning can work two ways on new learning. It is negative, that is, it prevents new
learning as I have just demonstrated in the discussion of self-concept. Or, it is positive,
that is, it aids new learning, as for instance, having learning one language will make it
easier to learn another. Or having learned mathematics will make it easier to progress in
the sciences. Fortunately, all learning is more helpful than it is damaging. In fact, the
more you learn the more helpful it becomes. Learning becomes easier and easier the
longer it is practiced, so one conclusion to draw from the discussion of transfer is a good
motive for continued study.
Keep at it and you will get better and better.
A second point is related closely to the negative emotional reaction that hinders studies.
Negative transfer makes it hard for you to learn new material, but it can be overcome.
Don't give up, just work harder.
A third point to draw from the discussion is to give yourself as much opportunity for
positive transfer to occur.
For instance, the average college student normally compartmentalizes his or her courses
and thus refuses to bring into his sociology class insights from his psychology class. Do
so. Let the two intermix. They have strong relationships and therefore strong
possibilities of positive transfer.
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Finally, you might consider the subject of sets. A set is a direction, a defined attitude
toward work. Let me demonstrate. Turn to figure five. Solve this mathematical problem
as quickly as you possibly can.
Stop. Did you multiply? Did you subtract? Did you add? Certainly you didn't divide.
If you performed any of these functions you made a mistake. There was not a
mathematical symbol in front of the five.
Logically, you should have done nothing. If you didn't; a set operated to make you
automatically respond to the subject in a specific way. Suppose that my motive was to
have you simply question me before you acted. You then would have failed because of
the power of your set.
Lesson… Beware of automatic behavior. By the way, a set, if it's most developed, is what
one calls prejudice. Avoid that too…
I hope then that I have demonstrated that some acquaintance with learning theory is of
practical use to you. That is, that knowledge of the curve of learning at its plateau, the
beneficial and damaging effects of emotion and self-concept upon learning, transfer, and
other traps of the set, can prevent you from making errors in your study.
Having spoken in general about this subject, I would now like to lecture upon a central
problem in learning, forgetting.
There's a fairly wide variety of statistics on rates of forgetting, this is largely because
there's a fairly wide variety of materials to forget. It is quite valuable to know these facts
and govern your study behavior accordingly. Turn to figure six.
First, this graph illustrates the point that different things are forgotten at different rates.
Second, it demonstrates that principals and concepts are rarely forgotten once learned,
though they are often that which is most difficult to learn. And third, the graph
demonstrates that memorized material is forgotten at an enormous rate.
Remember these three points. Replay the tape again if you don't recall them.
The most important fact then that you can derive from the above statistics is that you
should go for the main idea, the main concept, the underlying principal. Whether reading
a textbook or listening to a lecture, you should aim for the main idea. This principal will
underlie the material I give you on both reading and listening.
So if you wish to get the most out of your memory, comprehend.
Let's look at another set of statistics, the rate of forgetting material read in a college
textbook (a compellation of main ideas and supporting facts mixed in varying amounts.)
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Turn to figure seven. If you should read a 40 page chapter in an economics textbook, and
close the book immediately afterward, you would forget about 25 percent right after you
had read the Chapter, about ten pages worth.
In a day you would forget about 40 to 50 percent of the chapter. And in a week you
would forget about 80 to 85 percent of the chapter. That's 32 pages out of 40. And in a
month, you would only remember about ten percent of what you had read. And it's
doubtful that you would even have had a test yet. Can you do better than remember
four pages out of 40 in a month? Yes, Review…
If you have reviewed the chapter you would have retained about 80 percent of the
material for two weeks, not forgotten 80 percent. If you would have reviewed again on
the weekend, it is likely that you would retain 80 to 90 percent for a two month period.
That would take you to finals week in a quarter system, to midterms in a semester
system. And the review only takes five to ten minutes for an hour’s lecture, or an hour
of reading.
Just this knowledge alone no matter what your intelligence quotient for memory and
intelligence, have only a loose correlation, which puts you quite far ahead of a more
intelligent student who doesn't review. You will know almost five times as much as he or
she does by the time your examinations come up.
Again, the study techniques that I will recommend to you, treat review as a central step in
the act of study, without it, you will be in extremely bad condition.
Let us now consider the beaker analogy. Turn to figure eight. Very recent experiments
were conducted to learn more about the nature of forgetting and provided us with
further information. Let us say that learning is like pouring water into these two beakers.
A fast flow of water (left) is like easy material or a quick learner. A slow flow of water
(right) is like hard material or a slow learner. Evaporation of the water is like forgetting.
The main point to remember is that what counts in remembering is the degree of the
material learned. The beaker at the left is like Brown, a fast learner. In one hour, he or
she, is like that beaker, in that he or she has entirely mastered his or her subject and it is
entirely contained its volume of water. The beaker on the right is like Smith, a slow
learner. In one hour he or she is still as empty of knowledge as that beaker. Smith and
Brown are like beakers in another way. The wider the surface of water the quicker it
evaporates. Thus the water in the right beaker will evaporate faster than the water on
the left. The same applies to learners.
As I said a moment ago, the degree of material learned determines the rate of forgetting.
In other words, if Smith becomes as full as Brown, he or she won't forget faster, but if he
or she stops right now, he or she would forget much faster.
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On the other hand, a third conclusion from these investigations should cheer up the slow
learner. The rate of forgetting, if the kind of material and degree of material learned is
equal, is generally the same among humans. Except those that are lucky and that have
that photographic memory, a very rare species.
Let's apply this: Brown takes one hour to learn his or her French lesson. Smith takes two
hours to learn his or hers. Examination time comes, whose grade will be the higher?
Smith and Brown will score the same. Are you surprised?
The degree of the material learned, not the time spent in learning is what counts.
So don't worry too much about your intelligence quotient and your speed of learning,
differences in each are much less among college students than they are among high school
students.
Just work steadily and thoroughly, and of course, systematically.
Get a strong mode of working and then work hard. You should get your degree.
That concludes the lecture on forgetting. Now we're going to discuss the subjects of
memorization and comprehension on cassette number two.