The following writing sample is an analysis of two case – studies given in class 550 for the purpose of midterm evaluations. It helped in applying the different theories learnt in class. It improved the knowledge about different theories as well as made one critically think and evaluate the application of the theories in different situation. It also helped in learning the advantages and disadvantages of different theories under different context.
Case One:
Susan treating herself with a dish of ice-cream is an example of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is one of the learning theories developed by B.F Skinner. B. F skinner describes operant conditioning as “behavior controlled by its consequences”. That is an individual would either choose to engage in a behavior repeatedly or may choose to either avoid or change it depending upon the consequences of the behavior. Thus operant conditioning states that an existing behavior could either be strengthened or weakened. Since in this case, relishing the dish of ice-cream is the consequence of the behavior of solving at least three math problems of each of the different types that Susan had studied and getting it right – the consequence strengthen the behavior of solving math problems as well as trying to get them right. Hence it is an example of operant conditioning.
A behavior is strengthened by positive or negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement refers to presenting a satisfying stimulus (rewards or praise) over a behavior that increases the probability of the person engaging in the same behavior repeatedly. For instance: Parents reward a child with a play station for acquiring excellent grades in class. (Positive reinforcement) – Here parents are reinforcing the hardworking behavior of the child to ensure that he engages as well maintains the behavior that would yield in him acquiring excellent grades (A grade). Likewise in case of Susan treating herself with a dish of ice-cream for having completed three sums in each of the different types studied in class and getting them right is a positive reinforcement. Since positive – reinforcement refers to presenting a satisfying stimulus over a behavior with a view that it would facilitate strengthening of the desired behavior. In case of Susan the desired behavior is to ensure that Susan continues to solving at least three sums of each of the math problem that she has studied in class and also to try and get them right. This desired behavior is reinforced with a dish of ice-cream each time she gets all of the sums right. The dish of ice-cream is a satisfying stimulus which acts as a reward for having got all the sums right which motivates Susan to continue her efforts towards trying to solve all of the sums correctly. So the thought of being able to relish the dish of ice-cream would elicit the desired behavior.
On the other hand Negative reinforcement is when a behavior is strengthened by the removal of aversive stimulus. For instance, a child starts getting up early in the morning, so that his sister would stop pushing him off the bed because he doesn’t get up on time. In this case the aversive stimulus is being pushed off the bed by the sister for not getting up on time, this aversive stimulus is removed by getting up early and thus the habit of getting up early is reinforced.
A behavior is weakened by using either punishment or by removal of reinforcement. Punishment refers to presenting an aversive stimulus (opposite of negative reinforcement) over an undesired behavior so that the individual would stop exhibiting that undesired behavior. For instance, parents don’t let the child go out to play if he doesn’t finish his homework. Here not allowing the child to play is the punishment, over the behavior of not finishing his homework. Punishment is used with the hope that the individual will not repeat or engage in similar behavior. Though punishment could yield in weakening a behavior, it may also lead to negative effects (side effects). For instance, the individual being punished may develop an aversive attitude towards the punisher; he may even learn and adopt the behavior of the punisher (i.e. the behavior of punishing) and turn out to be abusive and aggressive by nature. Research conducted by Bandura, Ross and Ross (1961, 1963), individuals tend to demonstrate aggressive behavior by merely observing others engaging in similar behavior. Study conducted by Steinmetz (1997) demonstrated that parents who are abusive were themselves abused as children. Punishment could also result in learned helplessness where the individual tends to passively accept the events since it’s beyond his or her control. For instance, consistently getting poor grade in math makes an individual say that he is not capable of doing math.
On the other hand reinforcement removal weakens a behavior by merely removing the reinforcement that maintained the behavior. For instance, though the child would get up late ( after 8 am), his mother would always have his breakfast ready for him, the child starts getting up early, the moment his mother stops providing him with breakfast after 8 am. – Here not providing breakfast after 8 am refers to reinforcement removal – that leads to child getting up early. This form of reinforcement removal is called extinction. Another form of reinforcement removal is called response cost, where the individual has to give back previously earned reinforce. For instance, if the child doesn’t present his work on time, the he has to return one of the stars he had earned previously for submitting his work on time. Time-out is another form of reinforcement removal, where the individual is removed from the circumstances reinforcing the undesired behavior for a limited time.
Since treating oneself with a dish of ice-cream, didn’t exhibit any aspect of negative reinforcement because no aversive stimulus was removed, neither was there any kind of punishment involved nor was there a reinforcement removal. The act of treating oneself with ice-cream dish falls under positive reinforcement – where the ice- cream dish acts as a reward.
There are several types of reinforcers that could be employed with the view of strengthening a behavior. They are as follows: Primary reinforcer and conditioned reinforcers. Primary reinforcer is the one that takes into consideration basic biological need e.g. food, water, sleep etc. For instance, A child is denied chocolate drink if he doesn’t brush his teeth. Conditioned reinforcers are associated with primary reinforcers in order to reinforce a behavior e.g. money. Another type of positive reinforcement widely used was demonstrated by David Premack. It is known as the Premack principle – where a high – frequency behavior the one that is very well established is used in order to reinforce a low- frequency behavior. For instance, the child is allowed to play (high- frequency behavior) only if he completes his homework (low- frequency behavior). In case of Susan, the dish of ice-cream is a primary reinforcer – since it is associated with basic biological need that is food. The basic physiological needs are also explained by Abraham Maslow while he talks about the needs of hierarchy and how that is related to motivation. Thus the dish of ice-cream not only fulfills physiological need but also motivates Susan to work efficiently. Having dish of ice-cream in other contexts could also be explained according to primack principle, however with regards to this case- study it isn’t mentioned explicitly that having dish of ice-cream is a high-frequency behavior and most importantly from the given case – study it is quite evident that for Susan solving math problems is not a low-frequency behavior.
2. The theory of attribution explains how an individual interprets the causes of failure and success in his or her life. Weiner put forth three dimension of causal attribution: internal versus external, stable versus unstable, controllable versus uncontrollable. Internal factors refers to factors within an individual to which the individual attributes his or her failure and success e.g. personality, ability, mood etc. External dimension refers to factors such as other people, situations, luck etc. Stable dimension refers to factors that are stable over a period of time for instance intelligence or ability on the other hand unstable dimension refers to factors such as luck. Controllable dimension refers to factors that can be controlled by the individual, on the other hand uncontrollable dimension refers to factors that cannot be controlled by the individual. In case of Tim when he failed his last quiz, he was devastated and affected his performance on future tests. From this it can be attributed that Tim had attributed his failure to internal – stable – uncontrollable dimensions. That is, he believed that he lacked the ability to do well in math, which is one of reasons why he failed the test (“I am not sure I can do this”.). When Tim says, I don’t know. I don’t think I should be in this class – he has attribute his failure to factors that he believes are internal to one and that are stable – since he has been consistently performing poorly( mostly getting C, couple of B, and then failing his last test). He has also attributed the cause of his failure to uncontrollable dimension – that is he feels he has no control over failure on the test that is one of the reason he feels that he shouldn’t be in math class.
How individual interpret their failure is also influenced by the kind of goal orientation they have. Goal setting to a great extent determines motivation and performance level. Locke et al stated that in the goal setting process there are certain properties that are important such as how general is the goal, time taken to achieve it, and the orientation of the goal. Setting specific and difficult goals leads to persistent behavior than compared to setting general and easy goals.
Proximal goals are the ones that can be attained quickly for instance – completing the midterm paper by Monday 4.30. Distal goals are the ones that are at a distance – these goals have specific criteria to be met in the future. For instance – I want to start preparing for my PhD after having completed my master’s degree.
The types of achievement goals set by the learner influences their task persistence and problem- solving efforts, their study behavior and what they remember. There are two types of achievement goals one is learning goal and the other is performance goal. Learning goals is when an individual is involved in a task with a view of learning something. Performance goals is when an individual aims at getting an A grade – that is performing in the task is more important than learning. In case of Tim, he set goals that were performance oriented. Tim’s learned helplessness was due to performance oriented goal that he had set for himself. Since people with a performance oriented goal believe that their abilities are fixed, while trying to achieve the goal they ask themselves whether they have the abilities to achieve it. Not achieve the goal, in Tim case that would mean failing the math test – leads to the belief that he doesn’t have the abilities to do well in math. This belief foster low confidence at the same time learned helplessness, where Tim believes that since he doesn’t have the abilities to do well in math , he should no longer continue to be in that class. While studying with Susan he learns that Susan focuses on learning different types of mathematical sums, she tried to do at least three sums from each of the type studied in the class. Susan also mentioned that she gained confidence especially when she gets into solving the sums. Thus she encouraged Tim to focus on setting learning goals rather than setting goals that oriented towards performance. Tim developed learning goals – where he solved three sums of each type studied in class, at the same time in class when Mrs. Lovisolo used a term he didn’t know he made a note of it with its definition and studied it so that he could understand it when Mrs. Lovisolo explained the concept. Thus from performance oriented goal that led to learned helplessness, Tim developed goals that were learning oriented.
3. Self – efficacy refers to an individual’s belief about how capable he or she is with regards to the task they need to perform. It also refers to judgment people make about their abilities when they have to accomplish certain task as well as the expectations of what kind of actions would produce desirable outcome. The outcome expectations are the judgments people make about the consequences of performance. Bandura refers to three major types of outcome expectations: 1. Physical effects that accompany an action, 2. Social effects 3. Self – evaluative reactions to one’s own behavior. The kind of self-efficacy belief either limits of benefits an individual. Bandura suggested four principle sources that influence people self-efficacy beliefs they are as follows:
1. Enactive mastery experiences
2. Vicarious experiences
3. Verbal persuasion
4. Physiological states
Enactive mastery experiences is when an individual’s past success experiences influences his belief of performing on a task. For instances student getting ‘A’ grade in his quiz believe that is capable of getting ‘A’ grade in the next quiz as well. Vicarious experiences is when an individual’s self –efficacy belief is influenced by observing someone else who has attained success in a particular task. Verbal persuasion refers to self-efficacy belief which is influenced when someone persuades us with terms such as “you can do it”, For instance, Parents telling their children that, they should not lose hope if they don’t well in a test, they will do well in the next test. Physiological states refers to when self-efficacy beliefs are influenced by physiological states. For instance when while watching a football game, people say that they know in their gut feeling which team is going to win the game.
In case of Tim, the two sources that influenced his self-efficacy belief are vicarious learning and verbal persuasion.
When Tim observed Susan doing the math sums effortlessly as well as enjoying while studying, he was motivated to adopt her method of studying. Observing someone who is competent influences one’s belief of how well they can perform in the same task. Observing Susan (peer) doing well in quiz, Tim also gained confidence that he too could do well. Another source of self-efficacy was verbal persuasion – Tim’s teacher Mrs. Lovisolo tells him that, “Now I want you to relax. You can do this work”. Mrs. Lovisolo persuades Tim to believe in himself, trying to motivate him to not give up and continue working. Thus these two source influences Tim’s self-efficacy belief about his abilities with regards to being able to do well in math class and
improving his grades.
Case two:
Information is processed in three stages – 1. Sensory memory 2. Short-term memory and 3. Long term memory. The sensory memory consists of both iconic and echoic. Ms. Jewell showed her students photographs and other visual stimulus (imagery) making sure that they can process the information (iconic – sensory memory). The visual cue helps in encoding the information as well as would act as an aid in enabling students to retrieve information when needed (e.g. quiz and test). From the sensory memory the information in then passed on to short – term memory. The short-term memory too holds information for a short period of time. The information from short-term memory goes into the long term memory. Information processed into the long-term memory stays there forever. The quiz developed by Ms. Jewell that is multiple – choice and short answers – the multiple choice questions represent the concept of rehearsal – that is the individual has to revise the material he has studied so that he could do well. Thus by revising or repeating the text learnt, information is processed and led into the long term memory. Ms. Jewel doesn’t use the concept of self- questioning in class. The concept of self-questioning is when an individual ask himself or herself questions so that they comprehend the information better. It also helps in integrating new information with what they know previously. Thus when students are asked inferential questions, it not only helps them to think about the topic of study at a deeper level, but it also helps in connecting the current information with what they already know, this helps in processing the information but also when the connection developed will act as a trigger that would help in recalling the information from the long term memory.
5.
Declarative knowledge refers to facts, things that we know e.g. Obama is the president of United States of America. Procedural knowledge refers to knowing how – cognitive skills e.g. knowing how to ride a bike. Gagne put forth five major categories of learning outcome: verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, attitudes, and motor skills. Verbal information refers to knowledge acquired by the individual through schooling, books, television and other sources. Intellectual skills refers to procedural knowledge and are divided into five hierarchically ordered categories: discrimination, concrete concepts, defined concepts, rules, and higher – ordered rules. A learning hierarchy refers states that students must have learned one set of complex skills before moving to another e.g. Students must know all the 26 alphabets before they move on to forming words.
Discrimination is the ability to distinguish on the basis of perceptual characteristics. For instance to distinguish a table from a chair. Once individuals are able make differentiation between symbols, images, features etc. The next step is to learn to concepts. Concrete concepts refers to concepts that can be identified by name and could be distinguished perceptually. E.g. Students need to identify the seven colors of a rainbow. Some concepts cannot merely be distinguished or name for it to be understood, it is essential that they are defined. According to Gagne it is important that we don’t merely define the concepts but to be able to comprehend it we must also identify examples of the defined concepts. Rule learning refers symbols that are used to both represent as well as interact with the environment. Higher order rules are part of rules – that differ only with regards to complexity. For students to answer the last question of the quiz that is to draw and explain why do we have earthquake. Student need the intellectual skill – concept defined – since students are not merely required to state different occurrence of earth-quake, or merely state what does earth-quake mean. They had to state the reasons for why earth-quake occurs – thus providing examples for the explanation presented by them. Students would also require differentiating skills so that they while drawing – representing the earthquake – they could differentiate between different forms of it.
While retrieving an information from the long – term memory, either previously learnt information or newly learnt information could interfere while retrieving the information. Retroactive interference is when recently learned information interference while retrieving previous information. Proactive interference is when previously learnt material interferes while retrieving current information. In case of Jonathan, he had been in serious earthquake – i.e. experienced the event. When posed with a question pertaining to the same incident. There are two sets of information that are likely to be triggered a. the information about the earthquake that he was part of, b. the answer to the question that Ms. Jewell had asked and the one that he had learned in the class. Hence while answering the question, the previous information influenced the retrieval of current (new) information. That is it lead to proactive interference due to which he wasn’t able to answer the question correctly.
6. Explain how a network model and a propositional network model would represent plate tectonic differently. Draw out a brief network for “plate tectonic” in each type of model to show the difference.
In network models – the concepts in the semantic memory is viewed as nodes. Each concept is a node, and these concepts or nodes are connected by pathways – that connect one concept to the other. Therefore it leads to a spreading activation – that is the moment a concept is presented, that concept triggers several other related concepts – these concepts are connected through pathways. For e.g Robin is a bird. Robin is a bird activates several other related concepts such as – flying, feathers, eggs, animal etc. In case of the plate tectonics it would represent plate tectonics in terms of several other concepts related to it. So the moment concept of plate tectonics is presented it would activate other related concepts such as lithosphere, earthquake, oceanic trench etc. Propositional network model, nodes rather than referring to the basic unit of knowledge, refers to proposition. Proposition consists of subject and predicate. Thus the propositional model states that information is stored in the form of proposition. Likewise when it comes to storing information about plate tectonic – the information is broken down into proposition and then stored.
