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virtual conversations ACROSS time and place with some major the theorists of learning | |||
FADE IN:
Dr.Hermann Ebbinghaus (HE) and the reporter, Roverena
N. Roving (RNR), meet to discuss learning theory. . RNR When did you live, Dr. Ebbinghaus? HE 1850-1909, just when psychology emerged from philosophy, looked into sensation and perception, and engaged me in the study of learning RNR So you were interested in sensation and perception? HE No. My interest was to study learning from a scientific point of view. Science can give us answers, while philosophy only deals in questions and more questions. RNR You have faith in science? HE quickly looks at RNR to see if she’s smiling. RNR I mean, did you succeed in applying science to the study of learning? he Well, I developed a doctrine of association, grounded in the psychological science of the day. Ideas are not simply isolated pieces, they are connected, associated, if you will, through experience, and more strongly associated the more connected in experience—a simple notion, really—so much common sense, don’t you think? RNR pauses, not wanting to agree too quickly to the self-deprecating
comment. HE continues. he Well, you see, we could finally get experimental here, quantify learning: how many repetitions of previously non-associated materials in spaced, numbered repetitions, are to establish a predictable response pattern—that’s science, not hocus-pocus. There is a satisfied look as HE speaks, recalling what he started, a whole tradition of modern cognitive conceptions of learning. HE had been able to demonstrate the course of learning. The information gained from his verbal experiments lend themselves to scientific represented in the now classic forgetting curve. rnr Thank you for speaking with me, Dr. Ebbinghaus, and for your work. Time to meet with Dr. Edward L. Thorndike (ET)(1874-1949), who, like you, was interested in the doctrine of association. HE You’re welcome, anytime. So on to ET, is it? Well, just remember, his home, so to speak, was the connection between sensation and impulse, rather than idea association—that is, action as opposed to ideas We move further outward here. Soon it will all be external for a while, won’t it. You’ll be meeting the behaviorists, won’t you? (HE looks out at a distance, and back again, time fading, scene fading with the century’s decline.) RNR Yes, but first on to Dr. Thorndike!
(She exits) |