Enhancing Human Performance Issues, Theories, and Techniques, Background Papers (Complete Set) (1988) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Pages 153-246
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 153... ...
PART II. Learning
|
From page 155... ...
Learning During Sleep Eric Eich University of British Columbia
|
From page 157... ...
. EEG Activation During ~ .
|
From page 158... ...
For ease of exposition, the specific variables to be considered are classified according to four general types: sleep, item, task, and subject. Sleep Factors EEG Activation During and Following Item Presentation The research of Simon and Emmons revealed that alpha activity during the presentation of a target item was a necessary condition for the later recollection of that item.
|
From page 159... ...
These are the questions of chief concern in this paper. To address these issues, research dealing with a number of variables that may have an important influence on sleep learning is summarized in the second section of the paper, while in the third section, some tentative conclusions concerning the possibility and practicality of learning during sleep are offered' and prospects for future research are outlined.
|
From page 160... ...
In more recent times, however, there has been a modest revival of interest in the possibility of sleep learning, owing to three important developments. First, a number of studies have shown that during slow wave (alpha free)
|
From page 161... ...
1977) , these reports recommend a reappraisal of the conclusion that sleep learning is impossible, and raise a number of interesting questions concerning the conditions under which learning may occur.
|
From page 162... ...
Sleep Factors EEG Activation During and Following Item Presentation ~ .
|
From page 163... ...
Upon awakening, the subjects completed a test of nominally noncued or "spontaneous" recall, which was succeeded by a test of old/new sentence-recognition memory. The results showed that the duration of EEG activation that followed the presentation of a given sentence was quite short (mean = 9 see)
|
From page 164... ...
sleep -- a stage characterized by a fairly active EEG -- but without sleep interruption, dream recall decreases with increased time spent in slow wave sleep after the end of the REM period (Dement & Kleitman 1957~; and a number presented during deep sleep that is not followed by appreciable EEG activation can be recalled if the subject is intentionally and rapidly awakened before the short-tenm trace of the digit ceases to exist (Oltman et al.
|
From page 165... ...
As noted earlier, a number of Soviet and East European studies have reported success in producing relibale, sometimes robust, sleep learning effects. In these studies, presentations of the to-be-learned material are not regulated according to particular EEG patterns (as is customary in Western studies)
|
From page 166... ...
has argued, these differences probably account for why Western researchers frequently fad] to find evidence of sleep learning' while Eastern investigators often succeed.
|
From page 167... ...
idea that failures of waking memory for experimentally devised materials (such as sentences) that had been presented during sleep are attributable to the shift from sleeping to waking states.
|
From page 168... ...
As ~ mentioned earlier, Evans' experiment is the only one of which I am aware that directly examined whether memory for events experienced during sleep is specific to the sleep state. Accordingly, his results, though strongly suggestive of sleep specific memory, should be viewed with caution.
|
From page 169... ...
1969) , it has been shown that although events encoded in an intoxicated state are "dissociated" or difficult ~ to retrieve under conditions of sobriety, events experienced in the drug-free state are not state specific, and can be accessed as efficiently in the presence of alcohol as in its absence.
|
From page 170... ...
sleep learning/12 wakefulness. Why asymmetric dissociation should occur in conjunction with sleep, or any other experiential state (such as intoxication or happiness)
|
From page 171... ...
For this reason, and in the interests of practicality, audition has been the sensory channel of choice in all studies of sleep learning reported to date. Two methods of transmitting auditory information are available to the sleeplearning researcher: air conduction (loud speaker; e.g., Lehmann & Koukkou 1974; Simon & Emmons 1956)
|
From page 172... ...
Bliznitchenko (1968; also cited in Aarons 1976) , a pioneer in applied Soviet research on sleep learning, argued that repeated item presentations in the same sequence is a prerequisite to improvements in learning during sleeps but he too supplied no solid supporting data.
|
From page 173... ...
has noted, no sleep learning studies have yet been reported in which the semantic or denotative dimensions of the learning material is subject to systematic manipulation. Aarons has also remarked that apart from whatever role semantic meaningfulness may play in sleep learning, the personal meaningfulness or affective significance of the learning material may be important.
|
From page 174... ...
Still, the possibility exists that the presentation of learning material during sleep improves performance in the waking state -- provided that the material is familiar to the learners prior to its presentation. Preliminary support for this possibility has been provided by Tilley (1979~.
|
From page 175... ...
Be that as it may, Tilley's results are clearly consistent with the Soviet claim that pre-s~eep learning can be strengthened or reinforced through within-sleep repetition. It is equally clear, however, that Tilley's results need to be replicated, and if possible, extended to other types of learning materials and retention tasks.
|
From page 176... ...
found that items whose presentation during slow wave sleep was followed by an intermediate duaration and level of EEG activation could subsequently be recognized, though not spontaneously recalled.
|
From page 177... ...
. Memory for Events Experienced During Sleep: Remembering With and Without Awareness Evidence from several soruces suggests that memory for past events can influence present actions even if one is not aware of remembering the earlier experiences.
|
From page 178... ...
sleep learning/20 t Jacoby 1982; Moscovitch 1982; Tulving et al.
|
From page 179... ...
sleep learning/21 the subjects were asked to answer questions such as: "Name a musical instrument that emp70ys a r _ ." As implied by this example, the intent of the questionanswering task was to encourage the subjects to encode homophones, such as reed, in relation to their low-frequency or less common interpretations. In the second phase of the study, the subjects were read a list that consisted in part, of equivalent numbers of old and new homophones -- ones that either had or had not appeared in the context of biasing questions -- and were asked to spell each word aloud.
|
From page 180... ...
In particular, whereas recognition of an old word requires the recognized to be aware of its prior presentation, an influence of memory on the spelling of a word does not necessarily demand deliberate remembering (see Eich 1984; dacoby 1982~. Approached from the standpoint of sleep learning, the idea that recognition and spelling tap different memory processes or systems raises an interesting question for research.
|
From page 181... ...
sleep learning/23 presented with a series of short, descriptive phrases' each consisting of a homophone and one or two words that bias the homophone's less common interpretation (e.g., war and PEACE; deep SEA)
|
From page 182... ...
, he did not provide a breakdown of reproduction scores by age group. Svyedoshch also offered no hard numbers to support a second assertion concerning the relationship between sleep learning and age -- one that is seemingly at odds with the first: specifically, that the ability to assimilate speech during sleep can be acquired "artificially" by means of suggestions delivered in the context of either deep hypnosis or ordinary wakefullness, and that children and adolescents, being more suggestible by nature than older adults, are especially adept at developing sleep-learning abilities.
|
From page 183... ...
sleep Earning/25 Interestingly, the idea that an optimal period for learning how to learn during sleep may arise at an early age has also occurred to Aarons (1976) , but for different, and more defensible, reasons.
|
From page 184... ...
Yet apart from the research of Zukhar' and his associates (1965/1968) , in which people with histories of sleep disturbance were specifically excluded from participation, healthrelated variables have not been taken into account in prior studies of sleep learning.
|
From page 185... ...
. Second, it seems plausible to think that positive effects of sleep learning might be more readily demonstrated in individuals who are deficient rather than proficient in wake-state acquisition, in much the same manner as the memory-enhancing effects of nootropic drugs, such as oxiracetam (Itil et al.
|
From page 186... ...
. However, if Simon and Emmon's speculation that the benefits of sleep learning are more likely to be detected in good than in poor wake-state learners, then one would also expect to find a smaller correlation between the NA and SB scores of experimental subjects than between those of control subjects.
|
From page 187... ...
, learning during sleep is possible provided that the learners are suggestible. As a rule, however, Russian researchers have not been either clear or consistent in their usage of the term "suggestible" -- at times the term appears to imply susceptibility to hypnosis, at other times it refers to a strong waking set that is induced in the subjects to convince them that sleep learning is a bona fide phenomenon, and on still other occasions the term connotes both of these senses -- and the evidence they have presented to support their position cannot be regarded as compelling.
|
From page 188... ...
sleep learning/30 retention interval. Further, it is not clear from ~ likov's account exactly when the text was presented; the only procedural remarks he makes in this regard is that the text was presented, via tape recorder, at a volume that was below the threshold of hearing in the waking state, and that sleep was monitored by taking activity records (absence of motor movements)
|
From page 189... ...
wake learning. For another, it is possible that the striking difference in recall performance found between the first and second groups does not demonstrate the importance of preparing subjects for sleep learning, but rather reflects the fact that only the second group of subjects received any suggestions at all.
|
From page 190... ...
A strong waking set was then instilled that sleep learning is possible. Specifically, the subjects were told that, unlike most people, they were able to respond to suggestions presented during sleep, and that this made them particularly promising canadidates for sleep learning.
|
From page 191... ...
experiment seem to square with the Soviet position that sleep learning is possible in hypnotically susceptible subjects in whom a strong set to learn has been established. As such, Evans' results illuminate a number of interesting issues for future research.
|
From page 192... ...
These findings, in addition to the others mentioned earlier in this section, suggest that the relations among hypnotizability, dissociability, and sleep learning represent an inviting target for future research.
|
From page 193... ...
Whatever learning that has materialized in these studies has frequently been found to be correlated with both the duration and level of EEG wakefulness patterns that coincide with or closely follow presentation of the learning material. In contrast, evidence of substantial sleep learning has emerged in numerous Eastern studies, wherein familiar material is presented to "suggestible" subjects who have a strong presleep set to learn, and who are willing to participate in a lengthy training regimen.
|
From page 194... ...
sleep learning/36 whether there is any substance to to Soviet claim that substantial improvements in learning can be achieved by way of a systematic program of combined wake/sleep instruction. It would also be informative to discover whether such improvements are dependent upon the learners' age, their health, their capacity to acquire knowledge in the waking state, their susceptibility to hypnosis, and their motivation or set to learn; on the nature of the learning materials (e.g., whether they are affectively intoned or personally insignificant)
|
From page 195... ...
sleep learning/37 REFERENCES Aarons, L 1976 Sleep-assisted instruction.
|
From page 196... ...
sleep learning/38 Bliznitchemko, t. 1968 Hypnopaedia and its practice in the USSR.
|
From page 197... ...
sleep learning/39 Emmons, W H., and Simon, C
|
From page 198... ...
s ~ eep ~ ea rn i ng/40 Goodenough, D
|
From page 199... ...
sleep learning/ 41 Jacobson, A., Kales, A., Lehmann, D., and Zweizig, J 1965 Somnambulism: All night electroencephalographic studies.
|
From page 200... ...
sleep learning/42 Koukkou, M., and Lehmann' D 1968 EEG and memory storage in sleep experiments with humans.
|
From page 201... ...
sleep learning/43 Moscovitch, M 1982 Multiple dissociations of function in amnesia.
|
From page 202... ...
d. 1979 Sleep learning during Stage 2 and REM sleep.
|
From page 203... ...
sleep learning/45 Zavalova, N D., Zukhar' , V
|
From page 204... ...
. A third source of new information and perspectives has been experimental research on such instructional methods as mastery learning (Bloat, 1976)
|
From page 205... ...
Accelerated Learning Robert E S1avin Johns Hopkins University
|
From page 206... ...
. A third source of new information and perspectives has been experimental research on such instructional methods as mastery learning (Bloat, 1976)
|
From page 207... ...
A particular lesson might be too advanced for a particular group of students, or it may be that some students already know the material being taught. Some students may be learning the lesson quite well, while others are missing key concepts and falling behind because they lack prerequisite skills for new lemming.
|
From page 208... ...
For example, ability to understand instruction is partly a product of student ability, but is also a product of what teachers do to make sure that students have all the prerequisite skills and information they will need to successfully learn a new lesson. Persev—3—
|
From page 209... ...
2. Appropriate Levels of Instruction: The degree to which the teacher makes sure that students are ready to leak a new lesson (that is, they have the necessary skills and knowledge to learn it)
|
From page 210... ...
Other Cohen rent instructional methods not based on the process-product findings. such as mastery learning, cooperative Yearnings and individualized instruction methods, hwe al so been evaluated in field experiments.
|
From page 211... ...
presents a perspective on what is known now about each of the QAIT elements, explores the theoretical and practical ramifications of the interdependence of these elements for the design of ef fective instructional methods. and applies the QAIT formulation to a discus sion of ef fecti~re model ~ for classroom instruction.
|
From page 212... ...
Appropriate Levels of Instruction Perhaps the most difficult problem of school and classroom organization is accommodating instruction to the needs of students with different levels of prior knowledge and different learning rates. If a teacher presents a lesson on equations in two variables to a heterogeneous class, some students may fail to learn it because they have not mastered such prerequisite skills as solving equations in one variable.
|
From page 213... ...
. Mastery learning and individualized instruction are two widely used means of accommodating instruction to students' needs.
|
From page 214... ...
For example, homework that is checked has been found to contribute more to student achievement than homework that is assigned but not checked (Austin, 1978)
|
From page 215... ...
. In addition to being a product of specif ic strategies designed to increase student motivation, incentive is al so influenced by quality of instruction and appropriate levels of instruction.
|
From page 216... ...
~ but engaged time is a mediating variable linking alterable variables with student achievement. While allocated lime must be an essential element in any model of c1888room organization, research on thin variable has found few consistent effects on student achievement.
|
From page 217... ...
Figure 1 depicts a model of how alterable elements of instruction might affect student achievement. Figure 1 Here In Figure 1, two types of independer~t variables are presented: Student inputs and alterable variables.
|
From page 218... ...
However, in the context of any given lesson, the student input ~ can be con ridered fixed, while the alterable variables can be directly manipulated by the school or teacher. The effects of the al terable variables on student achievement are held to be mediated by two tim~related variables: Instructional efficiency and engaged time, or time-on-task.
|
From page 219... ...
The contention that the relationships between the alterable variables, instructional efficiency and engaged time. and student achievement are mul- tiplicative is of critical importance to the model proposed here.
|
From page 220... ...
In theory, individualized instruction should bring about a substantial improvement in the provision of appropriate levels of instruction. Yet rev dews of research on the achievement ef fects of ache indi~ridualz ed model ~ developed in the 1960' ~ and ~ 70' ~ have uniformly concluded that these methods had few if any positive ef fects on student achievement (Hartley, 1977: Horak, 1981; Miller, 1976; Schoen, in press)
|
From page 221... ...
the incentive value of doing the same types of worksheets day after day with little interaction with other students or with the teacher cannot be very great for many students. Finally, the necessity for a substantial amount of time for procedural activities, such an waiting for materials to be checked, reduces time available for learning, and any lack of of incentive to make rap id progres s may f urther reduce engaged time .
|
From page 222... ...
and enhanced incentives for learning. Attention to all four elements of effec~cive instruction turned out in this case to be necessary to produce a positi~re ef feet on student achievement.
|
From page 223... ...
The ef fecti~reness of CAT for enhanc ing student achievement depends on many factors One is the type of learning obj ective. For obj ectives that lend themselves to simulation' computers are uniquely appropriate.
|
From page 224... ...
. When CAI is used instead of regular classroom instruction, its effects on student achievement are much smaller and more inconsistent; in fact, when time, obj ecti~res, and instructors are all held constant, there is some question of whether there is any ef feet of CAT at all (Clark & Leonard, 1985~.
|
From page 225... ...
It is in this corrective instruction that time is varied for students; at least in theory, students receive as much corrective instruction as they need to master the test at the designated criterion. Mastery learning is used in two primary forms.
|
From page 226... ...
work with student tutors, or use self-instructional materials, but the responsibility to master the test ~ is e~senti al ly thei rs . 80th forms of mastery learning dew primarily with providing appropriate levels of instruction.
|
From page 227... ...
. The research on group~based mastery learning may support the prediction of the QAIT model that attending only to appropriate level s of instruction is not enough to significantly increase student achievement, but when a second element is also increased (in this case time)
|
From page 228... ...
focuses students and teachers on a narrowly def ined set of obj ectives. When performance on those obj ecti~res is assessed, it is hardly surprising that mastery learning student achieve them better than other students.
|
From page 229... ...
which give tutors step-by-step procedures to follow in instructing and praising their tuteea. As in the case of CAT and mastery learninga effects of peer tutoring are particularly strong when tutoring is done in addition to, not instead of, regular classroom instruction.
|
From page 230... ...
It differs from peer tutoring in several ways. First, students in cooperative learning are generally all of the same age, and are learning the material together.
|
From page 231... ...
In task specialization methods, each group member is responsible for a different part of the groups 8 ~cask. Research on group study methods indicates that this form of cooperative learning can be highly effective if two conditions are satisfied.
|
From page 232... ...
In addition to the incentive provided by group rewards, these methods al so impact on appropriate levels of instruc
|
From page 233... ...
this research is of mixed quality and is difficult to evaluate. Virtually all of it is published in the Journal of SuRgestive-Accelerati~re Learning and Teaching, and therefore has not been subjected to the rigorous peer review typical of the journals published by the American Educational Research Association or other scientific organizations.
|
From page 234... ...
evidence supporting the use of SALT indicates that the method is at least worthy of independent evaluation. A few studies of SAI`T did attend to problems of making experiments and cow tool groups comparable and holding both to the same obj ectives, and did find small but statistically significant advantages for the method (Prichard, Schuster, & Gensch, 1980; Schuster & Prichard, 1978)
|
From page 235... ...
For example, if a training program had clearly specified, easily measured obj ectives, then come form of mastery learning might be appropriate. If resources were available to provide correc~cive instruction outside of class to students who failed to achieve mastery on a formative test.
|
From page 236... ...
In particular, peer tutoring may be effectively used as corrective instruction in mastery learning programs. The applicability of SALT to military training is uncertain.
|
From page 237... ...
must take into account students' level ~ of prior knowledge and skill=, it must provide incentives for learning, and it must provide adequate learning time. There is no magic in instruction.
|
From page 238... ...
_, Ed ~l~ical variables in grades 1 through 6. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco .
|
From page 239... ...
Paper presented at the annual contention of the American Educational Research Association, New Orieans. Cloward, R
|
From page 240... ...
Review of Educational Research, 46 (3)
|
From page 241... ...
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco. Juatman, J
|
From page 242... ...
Cooperative mastery learning strategies. Paper presented at the annual convention of ache American Educational Research Assoc iation, Chicago.
|
From page 243... ...
Paper presented at the annual con~renti on of the American Educational Research Association, New York. Slavin, R
|
From page 244... ...
abilitygrouped, and individualized instruction on mathematics achievement. American Educational Research Journal.
|
From page 245... ...
p z In p 3: z ~ : :s at ~ p ~ it <: at: ~ to a: o c: z ~5 c a: o cd z L p c: In at: !
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.