Meltzoff et al (2009) notes

Meltzoff, A.N., Kuhl, P.K., Movellan, J., and Sejnowski., T.J. (2009)

Foundations for a new science of learning

Science, 325, 284-288

p284 'Human learning and cultural evolution are supported by a paradoxical adaptation. We are born immature. During the first year of life , the brain of an infant is teeming with structural activity' with sensory processes developing before higher activity'

'Three principles are emerging from cross-disciplinary work in psychology, neuroscience, machine learning, and education, contributing to a new science of learning'  and, in particular, are useful for explaining,, language and social understanding.

1.    Learning is computational, implicit

2.    Learning is social, implicit

3.    Learning  is supported by brain circuits linking perception and action

1. Learning is computational

' infants and young children possess powerful computational skills that allow them to automatically infer structural models of their environment from the statistical patterns they experience' eg 'before they are three, children use frequency distributions to learn which phonetic units distinguish words in their native language' p 285 ' Statistical regularities and co variations in the world thus provide a richer source of information than previously thought' and the learning    running around these regularities is implicit. ' Learning from probabilistic input provides an alternative to Skinnerian reinforcement learning and Chomskian nativist accounts' of learning

2. Learning is social

p285 'Children do not compute statistics indiscriminately. Social cues highlight what and when to learn'  young infants 'more readily learn and enact an event when it is produced by a person than be an inanimate device. Machine learning studies show that systematically increasing a robot's social-like behaviours and contingent responsivity elevates young children's willingness to connect with it and learn from it'

3. Learning is supported by brain circuits linking perception and action

' Human social and language learning are supported by neural-cognitive systems that link the actions of self and other.'  The brain areas responsible for initiation of movement and its action overlap. ' Social learning, imitation, and sensorimotor experience may initially generate, as well as modify and refine, shared neural circuitry for perception and action'.  KRO to what extent and what is the nature of 'the close coupling and attunement between self and other, which is the hallmark of seamless social communication and interaction'

Social learning and understanding

Three social skills are foundational

1.    Imitation

2.    Shared attention

3.    Empathy and social emotions

 Imitation

'Learning by observing and imitating experts in the culture is a powerful social learning mechanism' ' Imitation if faster than individual discovery and safer than trial and error learning' ' Children can use third person information ( observation of others) to create first person knowledge. This is an accelerator for learning: Instead of having to work out causal relationships themselves children can learn from watching experts' ' Imitative learning is valuable because the behavioural actions of others "like me" serve as a proxy for one's own' ' Children do not slavishly duplicate what they see but reenact a person's goals and intentions' ie ' they produce the goal that the adult was striving to achieve, not the unsuccessful attempts. Children choose whom, when, and what to imitate and seamlessly mix imitation and self discovery to solve novel problems'  attempts in robotics to emulate infant imitation include direct (input-action) and more recently goal based approaches .

 Shared attention

'Social learning is facilitated when people share attention. Shared attention to the same object or event provides a common ground for communication and teaching. An early component of shared attention is gaze following' experimental evidence to show that ' we project our own experience onto others'. P286  ' The ability to interpret the behaviour the behaviour and experience of others by using oneself as a model is a highly effective learning strategy that may be unique to human........It would be useful if this could be exploited in machine  learning'

Empathy and social emotions

' The capacity to feel and regulate emotions is critical '  ' In humans, many affective       processes are uniquely social'. Children will even help and comfort a social robot that was crying Tanaka,Cicourel,Movellan, 2007) 'Brain imaging studies in adults show an overlap in the neural systems activated when people  receive a painful stimulus themselves or perceive that another person is in pain  Hein & Singer (2008) These neural reactions are modulated by cultural experience, training, and perceived similarity between self and other Hein & Singer (2008)

Language Learning  - as shedding light on the interaction between computational learning, social facilitation of learning, and shared neural circuitry for perception and production.

Evidence to show that developing infants pick up the statistical regularities of a language leading to neural commitment. ' However, experiments also show that the computations involved in language learning are "gated" by social processes (Kuhl, 2007). In foreign language learning experiments, social interaction strongly influenced infants' statistical learning. Infants exposed to a foreign language at 9 months learn rapidly, but only when experiencing the new language during social interchanges with other humans. 'Temporal contingencies may be critical'.

Idea of neural commitment

A similar pattern , ' passerine  birds learn conspecific song by listening to and imitating adult birds' ' In birds, as in humans, a social context enhances vocal learning'.

Meltz paper at Stllar

Meltzoff, A.N., Kuhl, P.K., Movellan, J., and Sejnowski., T.J. (2009)

Foundations for a new science of learning

Science, 325, 284-288

p284 'Human learning and cultural evolution are supported by a paradoxical adaptation. We are born immature. During the first year if life , the brain of an infant is teeming with structural activity' with sensory processes developing before higher activity'

'Three principles are emerging from cross-disciplinary work in psychology, neuroscience, machine learning, and education, contributing to a new science of learning'  and, in particular, are useful for explaining,, language and social understanding.

1.    Learning is computational, implicit

2.    Learning is social, implicit

3.    Learning  is supported by brain circuits linking perception and action

1. Learning is computational

' infants and young children possess powerful computational skills that allow them to automatically infer structural models of their environment from the statistical patterns they experience' eg 'before they are three, children use frequency distributions to learn which phonetic units distinguish words in their native language' p 285 ' Statistical regularities and co variations in the world thus provide a richer source of information than previously thought' and the learning    running around these regularities is implicit. ' Learning from probabilistic input provides an alternative to Skinnerian reinforcement learning and Chomskian nativist accounts' of learning

2. Learning is social

p285 'Children do not compute statistics indiscriminately. Social cues highlight what and when to learn'  young infants 'more readily learn and enact an event when it is produced by a person than be an inanimate device. Machine learning studies show that systematically increasing a robot's social-like behaviours and contingent responsivity elevates young children's willingness to connect with it and learn from it'

3. Learning is supported by brain circuits linking perception and action

' Human social and language learning are supported by neural-cognitive systems that link the actions of self and other.'  The brain areas responsible for initiation of movement and its action overlap. ' Social learning, imitation, and sensorimotor experience may initially generate, as well as modify and refine, shared neural circuitry for perception and action'.  KRO to what extent and what is the nature of 'the close coupling and attunement between self and other, which is the hallmark of seamless social communication and interaction'

Social learning and understanding

Three social skills are foundational

1.    Imitation

2.    Shared attention

3.    Empathy and social emotions

 Imitation

'Learning by observing and imitating experts in the culture is a powerful social learning mechanism' ' Imitation if faster than individual discovery and safer than trial and error learning' ' Children can use third person information ( observation of others) to create first person knowledge. This is an accelerator for learning: Instead of having to work out causal relationships themselves children can learn from watching experts' ' Imitative learning is valuable because the behavioural actions of others "like me" serve as a proxy for one's own' ' Children do not slavishly duplicate what they see but reenact a person's goals and intentions' ie ' they produce the goal that the adult was striving to achieve, not the unsuccessful attempts. Children choose whom, when, and what to imitate and seamlessly mix imitation and self discovery to solve novel problems'  attempts in robotics to emulate infant imitation include direct (input-action) and more recently goal based approaches .

 Shared attention

'Social learning is facilitated when people share attention. Shared attention to the same object or event provides a common ground for communication and teaching. An early component of shared attention is gaze following' experimental evidence to show that ' we project our own experience onto others'. P286  ' The ability to interpret the behaviour the behaviour and experience of others by using oneself as a model is a highly effective learning strategy that may be unique to human........It would be useful if this could be exploited in machine  learning'

Empathy and social emotions

' The capacity to feel and regulate emotions is critical '  ' In humans, many affective       processes are uniquely social'. Children will even help and comfort a social robot that was crying Tanaka,Cicourel,Movellan, 2007) 'Brain imaging studies in adults show an overlap in the neural systems activated when people  receive a painful stimulus themselves or perceive that another person is in pain  Hein & Singer (2008) These neural reactions are modulated by cultural experience, training, and perceived similarity between self and other Hein & Singer (2008)

Language Learning  - as shedding light on the interaction between computational learning, social facilitation of learning, and shared neural circuitry for perception and production.

Evidence to show that developing infants pick up the statistical regularities of a language leading to neural commitment. ' However, experiments also show that the computations involved in language learning are "gated" by social processes (Kuhl, 2007). In foreign language learning experiments, social interaction strongly influenced infants' statistical learning. Infants exposed to a foreign language at 9 months learn rapidly, but only when experiencing the new language during social interchanges with other humans. 'Temporal contingencies may be critical'.

Idea of neural commitment

A similar pattern , ' passerine  birds learn conspecific song by listening to and imitating adult birds' ' In birds, as in humans, a social context enhances vocal learning'.

Wosnitza & Volet (2005)

Marold Wosnitza & Simone Volet (2005)

Origin, direction and impact of emotions in social online learning.

Learning and Instruction, 15, 449-464

Notes

· KRO - Concept of emotional arousal can be questioned

· Authors talk in terms of emotions ‘ directed at’ e.g. p456 task directed emotions, but surely using their framework the appraisal would be the causal agent. It is inherent in the description of the student reactions but it is not described in that way. Also talk in terms of emotions as a trigger.

· Multiple sources for emotion

· Interventions (teachers) depend on source and need to be able to recognize the source ( ? link to DP work)

· See individuals as p455 ‘mediating emotions’ (KRO link to frontal)

· How does conflict fit into this and in fact any work from any author about motivation? Although note authors do not talk specifically in terms of motivation

· Authors never found any evidence of positive emotions ‘ directed at’ the technology

· Claim that emoticons are common but do not evidence

· In social learning case study the participation record of others was a key factor of emotional ?arousal( KRO link to task relevance and values)

describe how within a group a group course of action is discussed; is this how emotion links to collaborative?

Concepts

Identifies the following as concepts that have developed around socio-emotional experience in online environments

· Social presence

· Sociability (Kreijns, K., Kirschner, P. A., & Jochems, W. (2002). The sociability of computer-supported collaborative learning environments. Journal of Education Technology and Society, 5(1), 8e22.)

· Social-emotional affordances Volet, S., & Wosnitza, M. (2004). Social affordances and students’ engagement in cross-national online learning: an exploratory study. Journal of Research in International Education, 3(1), 5e29.

· Distributed emotions

however

P450 ‘ mediating role of students’ appraisals of online learning activities and the process of emotion arousal remains less well known.

Emotion

Agrees that the literature on emotions is very diverse but claims that p450 ‘ but only a few of the extant theories form the basis of research on emotions related to learning ‘

Appraisal

Base their approach on appraisal theory

Frijda, N. H. (1986). The emotions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Lazarus, R. S., & Lazarus, B. N. (1994). Passion and reason: Making sense of our emotions. New York: Oxford University Press.

Ellsworth, P. C., & Scherer, K. R. (2003). Appraisal processes in emotion. In R. J. Davidson,

H. Goldsmith, & K. R. Scherer (Eds.), Handbook of the affective sciences (pp. 572e595). New York:

Oxford University Press.

They conceptualise appraisal operating at two levels

The primary level involves an assessment of familiarity, degree of challenge, which are considered alongside relevance to personal goals and interests. More specifically things that are familiar and not too challenging do not arouse much emotion whilst the unfamiliar and challenging lead to anxiety.

(KRO but surely these only relate to the task?, technology rather than the interaction. Also Jones described in more in terms of previous experience)

The secondary level is concerned with evaluating o the appropriateness of the different courses of action available to the learner.

In this way, the emotional valence and the appraisal of action will impact on learning although students will vary as to whether any action taken stems from a positive or a negative valence.

P455 ‘ their arousal ( emotions) is an appraisal process triggered by a perceived potential harm or benefit for the learner in the learning situation’ the reason for the arousal being linked to an attribution process.

Emotion type

Get the following as a source for another approach

Pekrun, R., Goetz, T., Titz, W., & Perry, R. (2002). Academic emotions in students’ self-regulated learning and achievement: a program of qualitative and quantitative research. Educational Psychologist, 37(2), 91e105.

After a review of the various methods available an particularly the timing of data collection, they concluded that a multiple method approach is desirable

Evidence their claims about appraisal based on two case studies

1. Maths class, 8^th graders, thinking aloud and simulated recall

2. University students, online course, transcripts of CMC and questionnaire.

Based on case study 2 p457 ‘ in summary, the analysis of social online learning situations reveals a range of other directed emotions in addition to self, task, and technology directed emotions. Emotions generated in social online environments are not different in nature from those generated in face-to-face ( they didn’t convincingly evidence this claim ( ? rather assumed) therefore (thesis will question this). What is different in online learning is the fact that emotions are expressed via technology ( how? No specific information) and the disclosure of emotions is of necessity voluntary ( thesis will not make this assumption). In contrast face to face situations offer the possibility of detecting emotions through facial expression and bodily language which may not always be voluntary disclosures of emotions’

The impact of emotions on learning and the significance for teacher intervention

P458 A number of studies have shown that ‘ when education based on computer conferencing fails, it is usually because there has not been a responsible teaching presence an appropriate leadership and direction exercised ‘ ( G, A & A, 2000, p96)

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment:

computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2e3), 87e105.

The process of emotion arousal is triggered by an activity that presents different degrees of challenge or familiarity to the learner and also difference degrees of relevance .

sw

Authors claim that appraisal and emotional arousal processes be used as conceptual tools to illustrate the impact of emotions on the individual students learning process.

The authors provide two case studies that ‘s stress the importance of teachers’ understanding the processes that trigger negative emotions in order to intervene effectively’

But

‘if emotions are not spontaneously disclosed, as is necessary in online learning ( a point the thesis will consider without making prior assumption) , teachers are unable to appreciate their significance on the learning process. Teachers also need to understand the full complexity, as evidenced from empirical work of the impact of student’s emotions on their motivation and further work.

Authors review of method

Considered in terms of a distinction between methods that collect evidence during learning and those that collect after.

(1) survey , specifically of emotions ( Pekrun paper) Emotions bring draw attention to the problematic nature of disclosure particularly when emotional experience is salient. Process of emotional experience is not revealed ( KRO ?process of empathizing with the experience revealed by the DP work ) KRO retrospective and therefore surely involves attribution

(2) observation

(i) Facial expression - FACs – ( details on this method from old notes ). For online it would require video recording ( with the attendant problems of that method)

(ii) Content analysis , inobtrusive, but maybe privacy issues. Inference and interpretation although methodologies have been developed

(3) emotion diary

(4) simulated recall – present some record of the learning process (KRO not available as a continuous record it can be challenging . For group work there are complex issues, particularly ethical

(5) Practitioner records

P454 ‘overall the methods that are applicable to social online learning provide only limited (KRO for thesis one aim is to extend these) access to the complex set of emotions experienced during the learning process.’ Each of these methods has limitations. When used in combination these methods provide a more comprehensive picture of the emotion arousal process and its impact on the learning process ( actually it doesn’t, as described, tell you anything about the learning process)