Læring Læring

Hermundur SigmundssonHermundur SigmundssonDepartment of Psychology, Department of Psychology,

Norwegian University of Science and Norwegian University of Science and TechnologyTechnology

Learning from a biological perspective Learning from a biological perspective

Development

’Development is about creating something more from something less’

(Smith & Thelen, 2003 p. 343

The lecture • Theories

– Begavelsen (Giftedness)– Skill/ability– White matter/grey matter– Probabilistic Epigenesis – Neural Darwinism

• Which consequences has this theories for our understanding of giftedness

• Conclusion

–

Begavelsen (Giftedness) • 2% med høyest IQ• Different from a skill?• Innate? Like a talent• Mathematic, language• Gifted with learning difficulties• Perform a skill at a level usually not

reached until later years• Three year-old reading

Begavelsen (Giftedness)

Begavelsen (Giftedness)Reynir Petur - savant

Begavelsen (Giftedness) • Francis Galton (1869) used the term

first • Exceptional talent in some areas.

Gifted person is one with a gift, a special talent

• Lewis Terman, early 1900, high IQ. Long term study of gifted children

• Leta Hollingwood, believed that the potential to be gifted was inherited. She felt that providing a nurturing home and school environment were also important

Begavelsen (Giftedness) • Mange begavede barn og savante har

en forsterket utvikling av høyre hjernehalvdel, språkrelaterte problemer og autoimmune forstyrrelser

• Intens motivasjon – mye sterkere indre driv enn gjennomsnittsbarnet

Begavelsen (Giftedness)

• Begavede barn rapporter vanligvis at familien spilte en positiv, og ikke en negativ rolle I deres utvikling

• Kontrollgrupper?• Familier med begavede barn er

barnesentrerte, familielivet ofte fullt og helt konsentrert om barnets behov

Begavelsen (Giftedness)

• Det er sannsynlig at foreldrene først ser et tegn på usedvanlige evner, og deretter responderer ved å vie sin tid til utviklingen av barnets ekstraordinære evner

• Ressurssterke barn vokser typisk opp I et ressurssterkt familiemiljø med et høyt nivå av intellektuell eller kunstnerisk stimulering(Winner, 2005)

Begavelsen (Giftedness) • Winner (2005). I vår kultur vil de

fleste forsvare det nativistiske synet på begavlse dvs. at begavelse anses som et produkt av medfødte, eksepsjonelle evner

• Erickson m.fl. (1993) hevder at begavelse (på alle områder) er et produkt av målrettet, hardt arbeid, eller bevisst øvelse og trening

Begavelsen (Giftedness) • Winner (2005). • Vi bør bruke større ressurser på å

utdanne våre aller mest begavede elever• Vi bør gripe inn for å sikre de begavede

elevene et lykkelig og mentalt sunt liv• For at elvene skal sikres emsjonell

velvære, trenger de utfordringer som er tilpasset deres nivå

• Ellers vil de ikke bare kjede seg (som kan føre til at de underpresterer), men også bli sosialt isolert og føle seg forskjellig fra de andre

Skill • Skill refers to an action or a task that

is carried out voluntary – with a clear goal or intentions

• The term skill refers to the level of proficiency on a specific task or limited group of tasks (Fleishman, 1966, p. 148)

• Action capacities (Csikszentmihalyi, 2008)

• Quantitative changes – new skills• Qualitative changes - being better at

specific skill

Ability • Ability refers to a more general trait of

the individual which has been inferred from certain response consistencies (e.g. correlations) on certain kinds of tasks (Fleishman, 1966, p.147/148)

• Schmidt (1991) argue that abilities are underlying, inherent, relative stable properties, while skills are trainable

• One example – the visual system (Stein &

Walsh, 1997) – developmental disorder

Sjakk – Magnus Carlsen

Musikk – Arve Tellefsen

Probabilistic Epigenesis

MaturationGrowth, ExperienceLearning

Edelman

Sebastian SeungSebastian Seung`I am my `I am my

connectome`connectome`Guys` brain are like Guys` brain are like waffles – they keep their waffles – they keep their lives compartmentalized lives compartmentalized in boxesin boxes

Girls` brains are like Girls` brains are like spaghetti – everything in spaghetti – everything in their life is connected to their life is connected to everything elseeverything else

The anatomical asymmetry in planum temporale of musicans

Edelmans theory • Edelmans theory on ‘neural

Darwinism’ argues that the process of learning can be explained as a process of selection that takes place inside the neural system. The theory emphasizes how stimuli and practice increase connections within specific areas of the brain

• Practice of a task strengthens the neural network that are used for that particular task

Task specificity• It is possible to argue that Edelman’s

theory supports the perspectives of ‘task specificity’ of learning (Sigmundsson, 2005; Haga, 2008)

• By saying that training is specific, we mean that every particular skill is specific and should be trained specifically (Larkin & Hoare, 2002)

• Motor skill learning- by training specific tasks – neuro-motor and perceptual – motor subsystems involved in that specific task may be tuned in (Sporns & Edelman, 1993)

Learningprocess Learningprocess

Understanding the skillUnderstanding the skill

Acquiring and refining the skillAcquiring and refining the skill

AutomatisationAutomatisation

GeneralisationGeneralisation

Repetition Repetition

Motivation Motivation

Trying Trying and and

practisingpractisingCopyinCopyin

g g

ImplicationsImplications

(Henderson & Sugden, 1992; Haga et al. (Henderson & Sugden, 1992; Haga et al. 2008)2008)

Generality and SpecificityGenerality and Specificity

Generality:Generality:Concentration, Concentration, focus, interestfocus, interest

How do we create How do we create that?that?

Specificity:Specificity:You develop what you You develop what you train train

How do we learn/train How do we learn/train in the best way?in the best way?

GiftednessGiftedness

AbilityAbility- Neural network- Neural network-ConcentrationConcentration-Focus, interestFocus, interest-MotivationMotivation

Action capacityAction capacity- Specificity:- Specificity:You develop what you train You develop what you train

Conclusion

• Gottliebs theory

• Edelmans theory

Conclusion

• Skill development

• Task specificity– Empirical support for task specificity

Conclusion

• Giftedness – ability or skill

• Task specificity

Conclusion – learning principles

The level of difficulty is set so that the child can manage the task, and the difficulty of the task is gradually increased as a results of the child success

(Csikszentmihalyi, 2008)