15 May 2007

Fictive learning is actually real learning

'Fictive learning' is based on the 'what if' scenario-making we sometimes indulge in. As it says in this article,
"fictive learning" experiences, governed by what might have happened under different circumstances, "often dominate the evaluation of the choices we make now and will make in the future, " said Dr. P. Read Montague, Jr., professor of neuroscience at BCM and director of the BCM Human Neuroimaging Laboratory and the newly formed Computational Psychiatry Unit. "These fictive signals are essential in a person's ability to assess the quality of his or her actions above and beyond simple experiences that have occurred in the immediately proximal time."

So for me this tells me that asking students to review what they have done using, among other things, what if scenario-making, is likely to help their learning. Some people are impatient of that kind of thing but it would appear to make sense.
ScienceDaily: Considering 'What Might Have Been' Is Key In Evaluating Behavior

Technorati Tags: , , ,

No comments:

"Spend and tax" not "tax and spend"

 I got a response from my MP which got me kind of mad. You'll see why as I reproduce it here. Apologies for the strange changes in types...