Learning Teppo Räisänen teraisan/ [email protected].

Learning

Teppo Räisänenhttp://www.oamk.fi/~teraisan/

[email protected]

Stimulus Treshold

Human senses are used a lot for filtering of information

E.g hearing during sleeping Normal signals are filtered Abnormal sounds invoke actions

If filtering would not be applied, human brains would overload with information

Stimulus Treshold

Signals that are observed are ones that are interesting are signals of danger

One can learn to filter even repetitive signals of danger (’false alarms’) E.g alarm sounds used in Harrisburg

nuclear facility

Attention Filtering of signals can be either

conscious or subconscious ’Attention’ is used to refer

conscious efforts Observing faint signals can be

achieved by concenrating Weak sounds Small visual objects

Attention

One’s current state of attention is largely dependent of one’s mental state A Motivated person reacts to faint

signals Unmotivated or tired persons needs

strong signals to surpass stimulus treshold

Coffee, smoke

Memory

Ability to use memory and recall are essential

Even most simple routines require use or memory

Memory is divided into Long term memory Short term memory

Memory Long term memory has a immense

capacity Humans do, however, forget things

Recapitulation vs. forgetfulness According to some theory we don’t

actually forget anything Fetching information from long

term memory can be a slow process

Memory

Short term memory has a small capacity Capacities are individual qualities 7 +/- 2 rule Some individuals may have a

considerably larger capacity

Reasoning

Humans gather information using their senses filter information learn skills and absorb information have memory and ability to recall

In addition we need to be able to adapt to new kinds of situations

Reasoning We use various problem-solving

methods Solutions of problems are based on

earlier experiences and knowledge Reasoning can be divided into

deductive reasoning inductive reasoning abductive reasoning

Deductive Reasoning

Deductive reasoning is based on premises

Observations are applied to premises, which leads to conclusions

E.g. ”During winter it’s cold outside”, ”If it is cold outside, I won’t go outside” => ”It’s winter, so I won’t go outside”

Deductive Reasoning

Deducive logic does not apply well in all situations

For example interpretations of concepts may vary: What is a ’winter’? How ’cold’ is defined?

Inductive Reasoning

Inductive logic is based on generalizations of individual obser-vations

E.g. ”Each of 100 elephants observed have trunks” => ”All elephants have trunks”

Inductive Reasoning

Inductive reasoning often leads to wrong conclusions, if fully applied

Elephant #101 may not have a trunk

Often we’ll still get results that are of accectable reliability

Abductive Reasoning Abductive logic is based on

cause/effect thinking E.g. ”If one does not eat healthy

food, one will become ill” => ”One is ill, therefore one has not eaten healthy food”

Users of applications often make wrong assumptions about program’s actions

Learning And Unlearning

Learning of skills and absorption of information have differences Skills are learned and unlearned

slowly Information is learned and unlearned

quickly Can you think of any examples?

Learning And Unlearning

There are many pedagocic theories and viewpoints to learning, e.g. Behaviorism Cognitivism Constructivism

Knowledge of theoretical background is very useful when designing UIs

Learning And Unlearning

Learnability is one of fundamental aspects of usability

UI should be as intuitive as possible Even the most intuitive UI requires

some earlier learning from the user UIs become much more intuitive,

when graphical UIs were introduced

Learning And Unlearning

Learning model can be formulated as Experimentation Feedback Forming of conceptual model

For applications to be as learnable as possible, they should follow the same conceptual model

Repetition

Repetition is necessary for permanent learning results

Trough repetition we learn phone numbers passwords many unnecessary things

Learner Types

Learning is effective if more than one senses can be used

Use of senses in learning is an individual quality: Visual learners Auditive learners Kinestetic learners

Learner Types

According to studies most people of western cultures seem to be visual learners

Pure types are very rare Use of senses is of course also

dependent on the task of learning

Learner Types

There are also other kinds of categories of learners, e.g.: holistic vs. serialistic learners introvert vs. extrovert types

Existence of different learner types should be considered when designing any kind of product

Special Groups

There are also groups of individuals, which have special requirements for learning the elderly children disabled persons

Special Groups

In future a growing part of software users will be aged persons

The problem in designing is often to find suitable persons for testing

There exists applications, which simulate environments of disabled persons

Learning type test

Let’s do a learning type test