On Fri, 17 Jun 2011 08:38:56 -0700, Michael Britt wrote: >There has been a lot of talk on the internet lately about perceptual learning. >
That can be either a good thing or a bad thing. >I believe that most of it was spurred by an article on the topic that appeared >in the NYT. I have a feeling you're referring this article by Benedict Carey; see: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/health/07learn.html?pagewanted=all Note: a red flag in the article is represented by the following statement: |For years school curriculums have emphasized top-down instruction, |especially for topics like math and science. Learn the rules first — the |theorems, the order of operations, Newton’s laws — then make a run |at the problem list at the end of the chapter. Yet recent research has |found that true experts have something at least as valuable as a mastery |of the rules: gut instinct, an instantaneous grasp of the type of problem |they’re up against. The above statement, IMHO, confuses a number of issues. Though I think that Gerd Gigerenzer has done a lot of good work, I am not convinced by his "fast and frugal heuristics" which he call "gut instinct". I assume that use of "gut instinct" above is referring to Gigerenzer's concept and not some bizarre notion that the way your stomach feels is guide to decision-making and problem solving. I would also argue that "gut instinct" is very different from coming up with a problem representation that leads to a quick solution (e.g., it is reported that Sir Ronald Fisher translated statistical problems into geometrical representations and worked out the problem in geometric terms and then re-mapped the process and solution back to a algebraic form). I also think that they may be many different definitions of what perceptual learning means though there may be a current viewpoint that "appears" to provide an adequate explanation. >I have to admit that I don't know much about this topic, so two >questions for those of you more familiar with it than I: > >1) What's the best source (book, published article) for learning >how perceptual learning works? Wikipedia has an entry on the topic (yadda-yadda); see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptual_learning You might want to check out some of the references there but I think the coverage of the topic is quite minimal (e.g., as a graduate student perceptual learning was a topic associated with Eleanor Gibson and appeared to be a topic in cognitive development; Eleanor's work is mentioned in only one sentence and no reference is given). I think that you do better with a PsycInfo search and perhaps looking the literature decade by decade but look for review articles. Poggio and Manfred and others appear to have re-invigorated the topic in the past decade (see their MIT press book "Perceptual Learning") but, since I don't keep up this area, I don't know if this an extension of previous research and theories or a completely new "paradigm". >2) Are there applications for the idea in the teaching of statistics >for psychology majors? I've been trying to apply what little I >know about perceptual learning to how I might use it in a stat class, >but it's just not clear to me yet. Wondering if any of you have >used it or are thinking about this as well. I don't know about this. David Krantz at Columbia has been looking at the question of how to teach statistics and how students understand the topics presented in statistics class. I don't if he believes in perceptual learning or not but you might check out his work and his perspective. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=11039 or send a blank email to leave-11039-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
