scholarly journals Integration of social cues and individual experiences during instrumental avoidance learning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Pärnamets ◽  
Andreas Olsson
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Social Partner ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Reliability Estimates ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Choice Option ◽  
Reinforcement Learning Model

Learning to avoid harmful consequences can be a costly trial-and-error process. In such situations, social information can be leveraged to improve individual learning outcomes. Here, we investigated how participants used their own experiences and others' social cues to avoid harm. Participants made repeated choices between harmful and safe options, each with different probabilities of generating shocks, while also seeing the image of a social partner. Some partners made predictive gaze cues towards the harmful choice option while others cued an option at random, and did so using neutral or fearful facial expressions. We tested how learned social information about partner reliability transferred across contexts by letting participants encounter the same partner in multiple trial blocks while facing novel choice options. Participants' decisions were best explained by a reinforcement learning model that independently learned the probabilities of options being safe and of partners being reliable and combined these combined these estimates to generate choices. Advice from partners making a fearful facial expression influenced participants' decisions more than advice from partners with neutral expressions. Our results showed that participants made better decisions when facing predictive partners and that they cached and transferred partner reliability estimates into new blocks. Using simulations we show that participants' transfer of social information into novel contexts is better adapted to variable social environments where social partners may change their cuing strategy or become untrustworthy. Finally, we found no relation between autism questionnaire scores and performance in our task, but do find autism trait related differences in learning rate parameters.

Outlier Vietnam and the Problem of Embeddedness: Contributions to the Political Economy of Learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan London
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
National Priority ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Political Commitments

Recent literature on the political economy of education highlights the role of political settlements, political commitments, and features of public governance in shaping education systems’ development and performance around learning. Vietnam’s experiences provide fertile ground for the critique and further development of this literature including, especially, its efforts to understand how features of accountability relations shape education systems’ performance across time and place. Globally, Vietnam is a contemporary outlier in education, having achieved rapid gains in enrolment and strong learning outcomes at relatively low levels of income. This paper proposes that beyond such felicitous conditions as economic growth and social historical and cultural elements that valorize education, Vietnam’s distinctive combination of Leninist political commitments to education and high levels of societal engagement in the education system often works to enhance accountability within the system in ways that contribute to the system’s coherence around learning; reflecting the sense and reality that Vietnam is a country in which education is a first national priority. Importantly, these alleged elements exist alongside other features that significantly undermine the system’s coherence and performance around learning. These include, among others, the system’s incoherent patterns of decentralization, the commercialization and commodification of schooling and learning, and corresponding patterns of systemic inequality. Taken together, these features of education in Vietnam underscore how the coherence of accountability relations that shape learning outcomes are contingent on the manner in which national and local systems are embedded within their broader social environments while also raising intriguing ideas for efforts to understand the conditions under which education systems’ performance with respect to learning can be promoted, supported, and sustained.

scholarly journals Social eavesdropping allows for a more risky gliding strategy by thermal-soaring birds

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (148) ◽  
pp. 20180578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah J. Williams ◽  
Andrew J. King ◽  
Olivier Duriez ◽  
Luca Börger ◽  
Emily L. C. Shepard
Keyword(s):  
Resource Availability ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Surrounding Area ◽  
Circling Behaviour ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Critical Resource ◽  
Speed Selection ◽  
Soaring Birds

Vultures are thought to form networks in the sky, with individuals monitoring the movements of others to gain up-to-date information on resource availability. While it is recognized that social information facilitates the search for carrion, how this facilitates the search for updrafts, another critical resource, remains unknown. In theory, birds could use information on updraft availability to modulate their flight speed, increasing their airspeed when informed on updraft location. In addition, the stylized circling behaviour associated with thermal soaring is likely to provide social cues on updraft availability for any bird operating in the surrounding area. We equipped five Gyps vultures with GPS and airspeed loggers to quantify the movements of birds flying in the same airspace. Birds that were socially informed on updraft availability immediately adopted higher airspeeds on entering the inter-thermal glide; a strategy that would be risky if birds were relying on personal information alone. This was embedded within a broader pattern of a reduction in airspeed (approx. 3 m s −1 ) through the glide, likely reflecting the need for low speed to sense and turn into the next thermal. Overall, this demonstrates (i) the complexity of factors affecting speed selection over fine temporal scales and (ii) that Gyps vultures respond to social information on the occurrence of energy in the aerial environment, which may reduce uncertainty in their movement decisions.

scholarly journals Self-Regulated Studying Behavior, and the Social Norms that Influence It

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Eyink ◽  
Benjamin Motz ◽  
Gordon Heltzel ◽  
Torrin Liddell
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
Social Approval ◽  
Injunctive Norms ◽  
Descriptive Norms ◽  
The Social ◽  
College Course ◽  
Improved Performance ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Influence Behavior

Teachers use injunctive norms when telling students what they should be doing. But researchers find that sometimes descriptive norms, information about what others are doing, more powerfully influence behavior. Currently, we examine which norm is more effective at increasing self-regulated studying and performance in an online college course. We found injunctive norms increased study behaviors aimed at fulfilling course requirements (completion of assigned activities), but did not improve learning outcomes. Descriptive norms increased behaviors aimed at improving knowledge (ungraded practice with activities after they were due), and improved performance. These results imply norms have a stronger influence over behavior when there is a match between the goal of the behavior (fulfilling course requirements vs. learning goals) and the pull of a stated norm (social approval vs. efficacy). Because the goal of education is learning, this suggests descriptive norms have a greater value for motivating self-regulated study in authentic learning environments.

scholarly journals An Instructor Learning Analytics Implementation Model

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly McKee
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Learning Analytics ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Implementation Model ◽  
Design And Development Research ◽  
Pedagogical Intent ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Support Students

With the widespread use of learning analytics tools, there is a need to explore how these technologies can be used to enhance teaching and learning. Little research has been conducted on what human processes are necessary to facilitate meaningful adoption of learning analytics. The research problem is that there is a lack of evidence-based guidance on how instructors can effectively implement learning analytics to support students with the purpose of improving learning outcomes. The goal was to develop and validate a model to guide instructors in the implementation of learning analytics tools. Using design and development research methods, an implementation model was constructed and validated internally. Themes emerged falling into the categories of adoption and caution with six themes falling under adoption including: LA as evidence, reaching out, frequency, early identification/intervention, self-reflection, and align LA with pedagogical intent and three themes falling under the category of caution including: skepticism, fear of overdependence, and question of usefulness.  The model should enhance instructors’ use of learning analytics by enabling them to better take advantage of available technologies to support teaching and learning in online and blended learning environments. Researchers can further validate the model by studying its usability (i.e., usefulness, effectiveness, efficiency, and learnability), as well as, how instructors’ use of this model to implement learning analytics in their courses affects retention, persistence, and performance.

Effects of Social Information on Risk Taking and Performance: Understanding Others’ Decisions vs. Comparing Oneself with Others in Short-Term Performance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Pittnauer ◽  
Martin Hohnisch ◽  
Andreas Ostermaier ◽  
Andreas Pfingsten
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Control Sample ◽  
Cumulative Effect ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Individual Risk ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Term Performance ◽  
Excessive Risk Taking

When a problem leaves decision makers uncertain as to how to approach it, observing others’ decisions can improve one’s own decisions by promoting more accurate judgments and a better insight into the problem. However, observing others’ decisions may also activate motives that prevent this potential from being realized, for instance, ego concerns that prompt excessive risk taking. Our experimental study investigates how two features of the social environment influence the effect of observing others’ decisions on individual risk taking and performance. We manipulated (1) the psychological distance to others whose decisions could be observed (and thereby the tendency to seek self-enhancing social comparison) and (2) the opportunity for interaction (and thereby for a cumulative effect of any such tendency on decisions over time and for an effect on social information itself). Because the two features covary in real-world settings, we designed two treatments corresponding to the two natural combinations. Both treatments provided participants with two other participants’ period decisions in a multiperiod problem under uncertainty. No new objective information about the problem could be inferred from these decisions. We predicted that participants who observed the decisions of distant others (who had solved the same problem earlier) would perform better than participants in a control sample without any information about others’ decisions and that participants who observed the decisions of proximal others (with whom interaction could arise) would take more risk and perform worse than those who observed distant others’ decisions. The data corroborate our predictions. We discuss implications for organizational learning.

scholarly journals The Risk of Failure: Trial and Error Learning and Long-Run Performance

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Callander ◽  
Niko Matouschek
Keyword(s):  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Improve Performance ◽  
Risk Of Failure ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Error Learning ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Impact

Innovation is often the key to sustained progress, yet innovation itself is difficult and highly risky. Success is not guaranteed as breakthroughs are mixed with setbacks and the path of learning is typically far from smooth. How decision makers learn by trial and error and the efficacy of the process are inextricably linked to the incentives of the decision makers themselves and, in particular, to their tolerance for risk. In this paper, we develop a model of trial and error learning with risk averse agents who learn by observing the choices of earlier agents and the outcomes that are realized. We identify sufficient conditions for the existence of optimal actions. We show that behavior within each period varies in risk and performance and that a performance trap develops, such that low performing agents opt to not experiment and thus fail to gain the knowledge necessary to improve performance. We also show that the impact of risk reverberates across periods, leading, on average, to divergence in long-run performance across agents. (JEL D81, D83, O31, O38)

Mobile Learning Technologies

2011 ◽  
pp. 146-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane M. Gayeski
Keyword(s):  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Learning Technologies ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
The Road ◽  
Powerful Learning ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
On The Road ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Internet Connections

While educational and corporate training environments have made large investments in getting wired to high-speed Internet connections, our work and social environments are rapidly becoming more mobile and flexible. The Internet and organizationally based intranets are powerful learning and performance tools, as long as users have a high-speed connection and up-to-date computing equipment. Online learning and information is not nearly as convenient or reliable when learners need to access sites from their homes, hotel rooms, client locations, or while on the road. In corporate settings, large numbers of critical employees such as factory engineers, health care professionals, builders, and maintenance workers often do not even have offices in which to use a computer.

scholarly journals Social cues and ideology

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Mansell
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Social Partner ◽  
Biological Factors ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
Democrats And Republicans

Research shows that individuals with liberal and conservative ideological orientations display different value positions concerning the acceptance of social change and inequality. Research also links the expression of different values to a number of biological factors, including heredity. In light of these biological influences, I investigate whether differences in social values associated with liberal and conservative ideologies reflect alternative strategies to maximize returns from social interactions. Using an American sample of Democrats and Republicans, I test whether information about shared and unshared social values in the form of implicit social attitudes have a disproportionate effect on the willingness of Democrats and Republicans to trust an anonymous social partner. I find evidence that knowledge of shared values significantly increases levels of trust among Democrats but not Republicans. I further find that knowledge of unshared values significantly decreases trust among Republicans but not Democrats. These findings are consistent with studies indicating that differences in ideological orientation are linked to differences in cognition and decision-making.

TEACHERS’ SKILLS OF EVALUATION AND PLANNING AS A PREREQUISITE FOR MANAGING EFFECTIVE LEARNING FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS’ IN–DEPTH UNDERSTANDING AND COMPETENCE

2018 ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Aivars Vilkaste
Keyword(s):  
Effective Teaching ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Systematic Evaluation ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Effective Learning ◽  
Individual Teacher ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Development Of Students

Teaching and learning is a bilateral process and students’ learning outcomes depend to a large extent on the motivation and performance of each individual teacher in the classroom and on the activities of all school teachers. Teacher's ability to evaluate and plan teaching and learning is one of the most important professional skills because systematic evaluation, planning and re-evaluation are an integral part of learning and maximization of development, which makes teaching effective and provides students with a profound understanding and competence. These are the means by which it can be ascertained that the results achieved are in line with national and local educational requirements. The paper analyzes the teachers' understanding of effective teaching and their skills to evaluate the teaching/learning process and to plan effective teaching as well as the need to improve teachers’ evaluation and planning skills.

scholarly journals Individual exploration and selective social learning: Balancing exploration-exploitation trade-offs in collective foraging

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ketika Garg ◽  
Christopher T. Kello ◽  
Paul E Smaldino
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Optimal Combination ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Lévy Walks ◽  
Power Law Exponent ◽  
Collective Foraging ◽  
Exploration Exploitation

Search requires balancing exploring for more options and exploiting the ones previously found. Individuals foraging in a group face another trade-off: whether to engage in social learning to exploit the solutions found by others or to solitarily search for unexplored solutions. Social learning can decrease the costs of finding new resources, but excessive social learning can decrease the exploration for new solutions. We study how these two trade-offs interact to influence search efficiency in a model of collective foraging under conditions of varying resource abundance, resource density, and group size. We modeled individual search strategies as Lévy walks, where a power-law exponent (μ) controlled the trade-off between exploitative and explorative movements in individual search. We modulated the trade-off between individual search and social learning using a selectivity parameter that determined how agents responded to social cues in terms of distance and likely opportunity costs. Our results show that social learning is favored in rich and clustered environments, but also that the benefits of exploiting social information are maximized by engaging in high levels of individual exploration. We show that selective use of social information can modulate the disadvantages of excessive social learning, especially in larger groups and with limited individual exploration. Finally, we found that the optimal combination of individual exploration and social learning gave rise to trajectories with μ ≈ 2 and provide support for the general optimality such patterns in search. Our work sheds light on the interplay between individual search and social learning, and has broader implications for collective search and problem-solving.

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