Robert Fettgather, Ph.D. is a counselor, educator, writer and activist residing in Grass Valley, California. He holds a doctorate in psychology and master degrees in both psychology and education.
Some recent thoughts on artificial intelligence in education
Perception considers the interpretation of sensation and seems to follow some basic guiding principles. It should be noted that individual and cultural differences in perception have been reported. It is process by which people take all the sensations they experience at any given moment and interpret them in some meaningful fashion.
The principle of figure-ground relationships can be illustrated by looking at reversible figures, which are visual illusions in which the figure and ground seem to switch back and forth. Closure refers to the brain's tendency to complete figures that are incomplete.
Visual perception of depth, referred to as depth perception, seems to be present in childhood at a very early age. Visual cues for depth that necessitate the use of just one eye are called monocular cues. Visual cues that use both eyes are referred to as binocular cues and include both convergence as well as binocular disparity.
In addition to cultural and individual differences, perceptions can be influenced by perceptual sets or expectancies as noted in the introduction. One example of perceptual expectancy is top-down processing. This happens when an individual utilizes pre-existing knowledge to place certain features into an organized whole. If there is no expectancy to help organize information, a person might use bottom-up processing to build a complete perception by making sense of the smaller features piece by piece. With a friend, try this experiment from Martin Bolt: print on a piece of paper the words below. Then read aloud these three words as your friend looks at the words and reads along with you:
FOLK CROAK SOAK
Next, immediately ask, what do you call the white of an egg? That expectation tricks the friend into a wrong answer, yolk!
A resident of Grass Valley, California, Robert Fettgather is an associate faculty member at Mission College in Santa Clara. Robert Fettgather has also served as a stress management trainer, certified by the Institute for Personality and Ability Testing. In his spare time, Robert Fettgather enjoys meditation and exercise routines.
We should all employ the practice of gratitude and counting one's blessings daily. And always strive to find new experiences that impart meaning to life. At the same time, have a forgiving attitude, even when someone does something mean-spirited or harmful. For example, if someone cuts you off on the highway, let go, take a few deep breaths, and repeat an affirmation such as “It’s fine, I am safe and uninjured, let’s move on.”
To reduce the stress of daily life, you can try reframing or examining a stressful or negative facet of life and describing it in a neutral or positive way. This act may help you distance yourself from the emotions invested in the negative experience and gain a new vantage point. Another effective way to reduce stress is to avoid “negative escapes” such as substance abuse, excessive eating, or uncontrolled spending. Instead, emphasize healthy mental processes such as mindfulness as a foundation for working through life challenges.
Exercise helps. Elliptical machines are fitness machines used by standing on two rimmed platforms that move forward and back in an elliptical pattern. They are popular in both households and health clubs. The machines allow low-impact workouts that benefit both the upper and lower body. Elliptical machines also enable high-intensity interval training (a combination of an interval that requires maximum effort during the first segment) and steady-state cardio workouts (doing one exercise for a longer period of time) that help strengthen the heart, lungs, and muscles. They also improve stamina.
Learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice. For example, think about children. Do they seem to learn more efficiently through verbal instruction or experience? According to Jennifer Zosh "toddlers learn new words more effectively by using their knowledge about the world to infer the label of an object, rather than by simply being instructed and told which word goes with which object" (emphasis added). In this comparison, "using" is experiential and means "involvement". Besides toddlers, for many of us, being told or being instructed may be less effective for learning than immersion and total involvement.
Consider ths well known quotation:‘Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.’ Interestingly, there hve been various attributuons for this saying including Benjamin Franklin and the ancient Confucian philosopher Xunzi. Regardless of its origin, there is significance to the act of doing as it applies to learning processes.
Learning theory has its roots in the work of Thorndike, Pavlov, Skinner, and many others. Let's think about an applied example of behaviorism-- and that is just how terrible many of us are at applying these principles in our own lives! For example, sometimes I fail to voice appreciation for the behaviors I like from loved ones, friends, and colleagues-that amounts to an extinction intervention. In other words, I am making those wonderful actions less likely to occur in the future.
And in frustration, I have been known to give a lot of attention to behavior I don't like from these very same folks. That can take the form of exasperation, complaining or a frown. With a child, it can be a scolding that provides attention and thus reinforces an undesired behavior. And of course, sometimes we resort to scolding friends and lovers too!
Robert Fettgather, Ph.D. is a counselor, educator, writer and activist residing in Grass Valley, California. He holds a doctorate in psyc...
