Practical Representation

This chapter discusses recent attempts to clarify the notion of practical representation and its theoretical fruitfulness. The ultimate goal is not just to show that intellectualists are on good grounds when they appeal to practical representation in their theories of know-how. Rather, it is to argue that ​ any plausible theory of skill and know-how has to appeal to the notion of practical representation developed here. §1 explains the notion of a mode of presentation and introduces practical modes of presentation. §2 illustrates practical representation by discussing models of motor control in current theories of sensori-motor psychology; §3 puts forward an argument for positing practical representation. §4 goes from practical non-conceptual representations to practical conceptual representations — to practical concepts. §5 concludes

Video content delivery for the ESL classroom with vodcasting technology

In this paper I will explain the means by which video content can be delivered to the ESL classroom via a technology known as vodcasting. The ability to deliver video to the ESL classroom CAN profoundly change the learning process, and I will explore the implications of this new technology in this paper. It must be emphasized, however, that the ABILITY to deliver video does not NECESSARILY enhance the learning experience. Content material needs to be appropriate and delivered in a manner that leads toward mastery of required language skills. To meet that goal, I will explain how material can be organized into “knowledge units”, as defined by B.F. Skinner in his work on programmed learning techniques. Using these knowledge units we will progress beyond the linguistic competence emphasized in traditional classrooms and work toward achieving true communicative competence. The American psychologist B.F. Skinner believed people are best able to learn when the cognitive domain, or target material, is divided into knowledge units he called “learning frames”. He defined a learning frame as a limited set of new facts coupled with an incomplete statement or question the learner was required to complete based on information provided from within the frame itself, or from previous frames. Skinner’s “programmed learning” approach required that frames be ordered so that knowledge units required for subsequent frames were mastered before they were needed. Learning was made possible through a series of very small and rigidly ordered steps directed toward mastery of a series of learning frames and the inferences that could be associated with the facts contained within those learning frames. The step-by-step approach advocated by Skinner provided reinforcement for correct responses, and kept the student focused on the material being studied. Skinner was especially critical of traditional education’s inability to provide sufficient reinforcement for the material being studied. “Perhaps,” said Skinner, “the most serious criticism of the current classroom is the relative infrequency of reinforcement.” (Skinner, 1962, page 25) Skinner believed reinforcement was crucial to the learning process because it was only through repetition and reinforcement that a behavior, or acquired skill, could be maintained in strength. Skills not used frequently were easily lost, as language teachers and students can attest to. The concept of programmed learning based on learning frames and the sequential mastery of material became extremely influential in textbook development in the 1960s, even 3 though the practice of computerized programmed learning itself was limited by access to the rather expensive computers of the time. Ironically, interest in programmed learning techniques seemed to have waned just as the development of personal computers made it truly possible to implement the practices Skinner had advocated

TOWARDS THE AUTOMATISATION OF A FOREIGN LANGUAGE: SENSORIMOTOR DRILLING, THE STRUCTURATION OF LINGUISTIC INPUT ON THE BASIS OF PROCESSING DEMANDS AND SENSORY CHUNKING

The current study presents the results of a treatment that sought to improve the 3rd person singular -s of the present simple tense. Sixty-four EFL learners from three different primary schools participated in the experiment. Learners were divided into a control group and two experimental groups. Whereas the control group followed its own school instruction, the two experimental groups followed a treatment that was based on neuroscience and psychology and that integrated innovative pedagogical techniques (©2018, 2019, Verónica Mendoza Fernández): sensorimotor drilling, the structuration of linguistic input on the basis of processing demands and sensory chunking. Learners carried out four pretest-postest tasks. Here are presented the results of one of the tasks: oral sentence transformation. The findings of the study indicated that statistical significance was reached by the two experimental groups only. Article visualizations

Simulating the referential properties of Dutch, German and English Root Infinitives in MOSAIC

Children learning many languages go through an Optional Infinitive stage in which they produce non-finite verb forms in contexts in which a finite verb form is required (e.g. ‘That go there’ instead of ‘That goes there’). MOSAIC (Model of Syntax Acquisition in Children) is a computational model of language learning that successfully simulates the developmental patterning of the Optional Infinitive (OI) phenomenon in English, Dutch, German and Spanish (Freudenthal, Pine, Aguado-Orea & Gobet, 2007). In the present study, MOSAIC is applied to the simulation of certain subtle but theoretically important phenomena in the cross-linguistic patterning of the OI phenomenon that are typically assumed to require a more complex formal analysis. MOSAIC is shown to successfully simulate 1) The Modal Reference Effect: the finding that Dutch and German children tend to use Root Infinitives in modal contexts, 2) The Eventivity constraint: the finding that Dutch and German Root Infinitives refer predominantly to actions rather than static situations, and 3) The absence or reduced size of these effects in English. These results provide strong support for input-driven explanations of the Modal Reference Effect as well as MOSAIC’s mechanism for producing Root Infinitives, and the wider claim that it is possible to explain key aspects of children’s early multi-word speech in terms of the interaction between a resource-limited distributional learning mechanism and the surface properties of the language to which children are exposed

Modelling the developmental patterning of finiteness marking in English, Dutch, German and Spanish using MOSAIC

In this paper we apply MOSAIC (Model of Syntax Acquisition in Children) to the simulation of the developmental patterning of children’s Optional Infinitive (OI) errors in four languages: English, Dutch, German and Spanish. MOSAIC, which has already simulated this phenomenon in Dutch and English, now implements a learning mechanism that better reflects the theoretical assumptions underlying it, as well as a chunking mechanism which results in frequent phrases being treated as one unit. Using one, identical model that learns from child-directed speech, we obtain a close quantitative fit to the data from all four languages, despite there being considerable cross-linguistic and developmental variation in the OI phenomenon. MOSAIC successfully simulates the difference between Spanish (a pro-drop language where OI errors are virtually absent), and Obligatory Subject languages that do display the OI phenomenon. It also highlights differences in the OI phenomenon across German and Dutch, two closely related languages whose grammar is virtually identical with respect to the relation between finiteness and verb placement. Taken together, these results suggest that (a) cross-linguistic differences in the rates at which children produce Optional Infinitives are graded, quantitative differences that closely reflect the statistical properties of the input they are exposed to and (b) theories of syntax acquisition need to consider more closely the role of input characteristics as determinants of quantitative differences in the cross-linguistic patterning of phenomena in language acquisition

Simulating activities: Relating motives, deliberation, and attentive coordination

Activities are located behaviors, taking time, conceived as socially meaningful, and usually involving interaction with tools and the environment. In modeling human cognition as a form of problem solving (goal-directed search and operator sequencing), cognitive science researchers have not adequately studied “off-task” activities (e.g., waiting), non-intellectual motives (e.g., hunger), sustaining a goal state (e.g., playful interaction), and coupled perceptual-motor dynamics (e.g., following someone). These aspects of human behavior have been considered in bits and pieces in past research, identified as scripts, human factors, behavior settings, ensemble, flow experience, and situated action. More broadly, activity theory provides a comprehensive framework relating motives, goals, and operations. This paper ties these ideas together, using examples from work life in a Canadian High Arctic research station. The emphasis is on simulating human behavior as it naturally occurs, such that “working” is understood as an aspect of living. The result is a synthesis of previously unrelated analytic perspectives and a broader appreciation of the nature of human cognition. Simulating activities in this comprehensive way is useful for understanding work practice, promoting learning, and designing better tools, including human-robot systems

Strategy Uses and Study Time: Relationship with Memory Performance in Older Adults

The overall purpose of this study was to foster a greater understanding of age-related memory loss as it pertains to the aging workforce\u27s ability to remain productive and effective in a time of complex change, and to recommend some adjustments that can be made to compensate for these memory declines. The specific intent of this current project was to test one premise of Ericsson and Chase\u27s Skilled Memory Theory, namely that memory skill is a skill that can be developed through enhanced encoding and through practice. By introducing participants to the simple mnemonic strategy of chunking and by allowing two different study times, it was hypothesized that recall would be higher for the groups instructed to use the chunking than for the no-strategy group. It was also hypothesized that the group given the longer study time would outperform the group given the shorter time. Results of the study did not support either hypotheses