How People Learn II Learners, Contexts, and Cultures (2018) / Chapter Skim
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3 Types of Learning and the Developing Brain
3 Types of Learning and the Developing Brain
Pages 35-68
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We then discuss brain development through the life span and changes in the brain that both support learning and occur as a result. In this discussion, we draw on research in education and in social, cultural, and cognitive neuroscience.
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She has engaged in motor learning to improve her finger work, perceptual learning to pick out chord progressions from recordings, and observational learning by watching others' live and recorded performances. Practice and regimenta tion figure prominently in her training.
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For example, in 2011, Foldit players, who include retirees and citizens of more than 13 countries, as well as science students, uncovered the crystal structure of a virus that causes AIDS in monkeys, producing a solution that had eluded professional scientists for 15 years (Khatib et al., 2011)
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. In the real world, learning situations almost always involve multiple learning processes and always are influenced by context and by the learner's own characteristics and preferences.
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The gradual learning and unlearning of habits follows principles of conditioning, a nonconscious form of learning in which one automatically adjusts one's decisions and behaviors when particular and familiar contextual cues or triggers are present. These decisions and behaviors can be strengthened when they are closely followed by rewards; for example, when the candy bar tastes good and gives an energy rush (even if the rush is followed by an energy crash)
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Although conditioning is an adaptive learning process, sometimes it can lead to undesirable consequences, as in some acquired taste aversions, or in the case of abused children who learn antisocial strategies for protecting themselves. For example, cancer patients who become nauseated from che motherapy drugs may begin to feel nauseated even when thinking about the drugs or when eating a food they had previously eaten before a treatment (Bernstein et al., 1982)
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The Foldit players in our third learning scenario benefit from observational learning as they follow both general strategies and particular solutions they see their peers do. They organize teams, online forums, and recipe repositories specifically to promote their own observational learning.
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The children who learned the most during the waiting period were from families with the most traditional Mayan practices. Implicit Pattern Learning Observational learning is not the only way a person can learn without receiving external feedback or rewards.
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Language learning is a good example of statistical learning because people spontaneously and without conscious effort use the regularities that language contains to produce their own utterances (Bybee and McClelland, 2005)
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. Motor learning, such as learning how to swim, ride a bicycle, or play a guitar chord without a buzzing sound, is often highly specific.
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Both perceptual and motor learning can lead to surprisingly robust changes in the perceptual system. A striking demonstration of this is a phenomenon known as the McCollough Effect (McCollough, 1965)
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The striking difference between how the images in Figure 3-5 appeared to you before and after the clarifying experi ence of seeing Figure 3-6 provides a compelling, rapid analog for the greater, often gradually accumulated, power of experience to change what we see. Perceptual-motor learning can also play a large role in the development of academic knowledge.
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From page 47... ...
developed brief online modules to support perceptual learning in mathematics. Students using the modules make quick decisions for 120 problems.
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Twelfth-grade students who completed the module nearly tripled their abilities to translate between graphs and equations, even though they had previously completed algebra. The importance of perceptual learning for academic topics can easily be
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Although a fact might be learned in a single exposure or from being told, it is important to note that this apparent efficiency and directness can be misleading. Facts are rarely learned in a single instance, and accurate generalizations are rarely learned from a single example.
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Adults may often rely on established models such as the circle of fifths in music theory, but people also develop their own models in many circumstances, for example to try to understand the most economical way to manage their home heating system. Models are powerful tools for making inferences in novel situations, but almost all models can yield incorrect predictions in circumstances that do not fit, so it is important to consider the purposes for which they are used.
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when shown only a single example and correctly categorize new instances of the character (imperfect instances shown in lower right)
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Five alternative mental models of the Earth were identified: the rectangular Earth, the disc Earth, the dual Earth, the hollow sphere, and the flattened sphere. SOURCE: Vosniadou and Brewer (1992, Fig.
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. Despite the potential for misunderstanding, it is difficult to imagine an area of advanced human creative or scholarly pursuit that does not involve models: the artist's model of complementary and analogous colors, the medical model of blood sugar–insulin regulation, the historian's use of Marxist accounts of class struggles, the double helix model of DNA, and the physicist's model of atomic and subatomic particles are just a few examples.
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. Foldit players demonstrate remarkable learning by creating models when they program (code)
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LEARNING AND THE BRAIN One of the most striking advances in learning sciences in the past 15 years has been in understanding the protracted course of brain development, which begins in utero and continues well into adulthood. Several reports have examined the research on brain development and the implications for learning.
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Prenatal and Lifelong Brain Development and Maturation The prenatal period is marked by an astounding rate of formation of new neurons, synapses, and myelinated axons -- with the result that the brain has more of these structural elements than it needs. This development continues after birth: the brain increases fourfold in size during the preschool years and reaches approximately 90 percent of adult brain volume by age 6 (Lenroot and Giedd, 2006)
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Sensitive periods are similar to critical periods but less fixed. For example, it is thought that both a loving relationship with a caretaker early in infancy and throughout toddlerhood and early exposure to language are essential for healthy brain development.
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indicate greater cortical thickness. As the FIGURE 3-9 Mean cortical thickness across the adult life span.
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It has been assumed that brain development always leads the way in cognitive development and learning, but in fact the brain both shapes and is shaped by experience, including opportunities the individual has for cognitive devel pment and social interaction. The reciprocal interactions in learning o between the dynamically changing brain and culturally situated experience form a fascinating developmental dance, the nuances of which are not yet fully under tood.
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Research on the way blind people use the visual cortex, which normally processes visual inputs, offers a striking illustration of this circuit adaptabil ity. In one study, for example, blind research subjects were able to recruit a particular subregion of the visual cortex -- a portion associated with con structing spatial representations and relations for hearing and touch -- when they were performing spatial tasks like reporting where in space they heard a sound (Renier et al., 2010)
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measured brain activity in the sensory cortex of violinists as their fingers were lightly touched and found greater activity in the sensory cortex for the left hand than the right hand. This is logical because a violinist needs to control each of the fingers on his left hand individually, whereas the job of the right hand, bowing, does not require manipulation of the individual fingers.
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Individuals are not infinitely adaptive, but the extent to which they can rise to cultural expectations when provided with opportunities and support is impressive. Evidence of Learning-Related Changes in the Brain Throughout the Life Span The finding that dramatic brain reorganization takes place throughout early childhood and adolescence clearly has implications for education, but linking developmental neuroscience and human behavior research directly to instructional practice and to education policy is complex (Leisman et al., 2015)
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First, the processes of brain development persist beyond the first 3 years of age and well into the second decade of life and beyond -- that is, throughout the period of formal schooling for most Americans. At the same time, extensive research has revealed that the brain continues to undergo structural changes as a function of learning and experience (e.g., Draganski et al., 2004)
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. A single measure of cortical thickness thus provides only limited information about this complex process and may not correlate with skill level achieved.
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examined the neural correlates underlying mental calculations in abacus experts and found that these experts do in fact recruit different brain areas for mental operations tasks than do non-experts. Another example is long-term engagement in culturally embedded behavioral practices such as meditation, which leads to long-lasting changes in neural structure and function and may in some cases offset age-related cortical thinning (Braboszcz et al., 2013; Creswell and Lindsay, 2014; Davidson and Lutz, 2008; Lazar et al., 2005)
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Although changes in brain structures have not been directly linked to learning throughout the life span, we note several points from this research. First, although the brain is able to change and adapt throughout the life span, environmental influences in the early years lay the neural scaffolding for later learning and development (Amedi et al., 2007; Keuroghlian and Knudsen, 2007)
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We have noted that environmental influences in the early developmental years lay the foundation for later learning and development, that synaptic pruning and other neurological developments through adolescence shape and are shaped by the learner's experiences, and that the brain adapts to age-related declines in some functions by recruiting other mechanisms. We have shown that the relation between brain development and learning is reciprocal: learning occurs through interdependent neural networks at the same time that learning and development involve the continuous shaping
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Development of the brain influences behavior and learning, and in turn, learning influences brain development and brain health.
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