Principle: Step Size
Step size is defined not by the amount or complexity of content or the intricacy and difficulty of
the act to be learned, but rather by the amount of effort necessary to learn it. Step size, as a
principle of learning, is inferable from behavioral learning theory through the relationship
between variations in the time required for simple conditioning to occur combined with crosstrial variations in the stimulus condition. The effect of step size on time required for learning, in
cases of simple conditioning, is most obvious during conditioning for discrimination or
generalization, in which too great a variation in stimulus attributes from one trial to the next fail
to evoke the desired response.
Theory Group
Behavioral
References
Aristotle:
Graduated attainment
Thorndike:
Gradually all non-successful impulses will be stamped out
Formation of each association may be represented with a time curve
Associative shifting
The extreme of ease: when a single experience stamps the association in completely
Improvement is the addition or subtraction of bonds
Changes in rate of improvement result from the number of bonds and the ease of
Formation
Pavlov:
Each reinforced pairing of CS and UCS is a step up in strength of association Learning
steps as progressive differentiation of similar stimuli
Watson:
Gradually, and usually very gradually, the number of right responses exceeds the number
of wrong responses until finally all the responses are right and the habit is formed
Skinner:
Shaping
Vanishing
Chaining
Developing competence in any field must be divided into a very large number of
very small steps
Hull:
Fractional anticipatory goal reaction
Step-size as a function of generalization and stimulus condition equivalence
Guthrie:
One trial learning as the smallest step of progression
Learning of skills requires the acquisition of many movements
Estes:
Number of new elements conditioned on each sampled trial
Number of new elements must be significantly less than the number of elements
already conditioned to the response
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Theory Group
Cognitive
References
Ebbinghaus:
Number of syllables that can be correctly recited after only one ready (usually seven)
Number of repetitions necessary for the memorization of a series increases with
extraordinary rapidity with the increase in number of the syllables
Tolman:
No specific correlating local principles identified
Kohler:
No specific correlating local principles identified
Cognitive Information Processing:
Limited capacity of attention
Limited capacity of short-term memory Rehearsal buffer of limited size
Ausubel:
Some tasks are so complex that they cannot be learned directly Conditions of practice
should gradually begin to approximate the desired
(unprompted) end-point of the learning product
Step size of practice trials should be adjusted to learner's success or failure on
preceding learning Progressive differentiation
Schema Theory:
Tuning: minor modification to bring established categories into congruence with the
functional demands placed on them
Restructuring: results from unwieldiness and ill-formedness of some critical mass of
information that has been
Constructive
General:
Too small of a step size decontextualizes new information
Piaget:
Development is a continuous and smooth process
Bruner:
Acts organized into ensembles
Larger and larger units of information
Simple components of complex operations Growth in spurts
Human
Self-Efficacy:
Graduated building up of self-efficacy through progressively attenuated scaffolding
Social
Vygotsky:
Incremental attainment through repeated exposure
Zone of proximal development
Good learning is in advance of development
Bandura:
Progressive response induction aids
The number of subskills which must be combined, or learned to perform a more
complex skill
Situated learning:
Gradual increase in responsibility
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Theory Group
References
Activity theory:
Large-scale cycles involve numerous smaller cycles of learning actions
Cognitive apprenticeship:
Managing step size through scaffolding and fading Increasing complexity
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