Nature and uses of immaturity

Bruner, J. S. (1972). Nature and uses of immaturity. American Psychologist, 27(8), 687-708. doi: 10.1037/h0033144


Man adapts by changing the environment, by developing amplifiers and transformers for his sense, banks for his memory, but also by changing literally the properties of his habitat
-This adaptation to variable conditions depends heavily on opportunities for learning, in order to achieve knowledge and skills that are not stored in the gene pool.
- Bruner points out pattern of enormous observation of the adult behavior by young, and with incorporating what
has been learned into a pattern of play
observational learning: Two prerequisites:
1-the ability to differentiate or abstract oneself from a task
2-construction of an action pattern by appropriate sequencing of a set of constituent subroutines to match a model  
Functions of play
- a means of minimizing consequences of one's actions and of learning
- provides excellent opportunity to try combinations of behavior that would never be tried under pressure

The Implications of a Theory of Play for the Design of Computer Toys

Kolomyjec, B., Cassell, J., Kafai, Y. B., & Williamson, M. (1997). The implications of a theory of play for the design of computer toys (panel). Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 24th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques. 


"Play [can] be considered a leading activity that determines the child’s development" - Vygotsky, Mind in Society

The nature of play: the adults view play as not as important as adult activities

-the paper draws attention on the importance of the play, play's role in cultural development
-paper also points out the differences in gender and culture
Play is more than make-believe:
-play is the medium for the child to experience everything
-immersion and imagination -  the child's imagination is bounded by the cultural world he is immersed in
Vygotsky's zone of proximal development of play: the model in which t
he developmental progression of
the relationships among the child and the play event is represented.
    - enters the ZPD of play by participating during play
    - everything within the zone are governed by rules that are set by social values of the culture the ZPD is in
pivot object:(Vygotsky): with which the child plays 
-representational: thinking
-pragmatic:creating
- the child mediates between

Instructional Animation vs. Static Pictures

Höffler, T., & Leutner, D. (2007). Instructional animation versus static pictures: A meta-analysis. Learning and Instruction, 17, 722 -738.


This paper is about a meta-analysis done with static and dynamic visualizations
Effect of pictures on learning:
-Active processing: Wittrock - meaningful learning occurs when learners are actively process information
-Dual channel processing and dual coding: Paivio' dual coding and Baddeley's working memory
-Limited capacity: limitations of the short term memory load 
Effects of animations on learning: no distinction from static pictures
Animations vs static pictures:
-disadvantage of animation: a frame of an animation is viewed only at a time, with time limit in working memory that can be forgotten easily, while static pictures are there permanently
-advantage of animation: animations can help mentally visualize a procedure instead of trying to reconstruct the process form series of pictures-- reducing cognitive load 
-for both: spatial ability, prior knowledge are effective


meta-analysis result:
-animations are better than static pictures in general?
-animations are learned better when motion depicted in the animation is the content to be learned = representational animation rather than decorational animation
-instructional animations over static pictures - which is in line with cognitive load theory and multimedia learning. 

Optimizing Cognitive Load for Learning from Computer-Based Science Simulaitons

Lee, H., Plass, J.L., & Homer, B.D. (2006). Optimizing cognitive load for learning from computer-based science simulations. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 902–913.


How to design the scientific simulations to optimize their instructional effectiveness - by reducing the cognitive load
Simulations are dynamic interactions letting the user control variables that change the way the things are running inside the simulated life.
They are complex, which results in high intrinsic cognitive load. -questions are level of control user, role of guidance reflection, interactivity.


Goal of this paper is to  explore the ways to optimize the cognitive load in visual displays of simulations - considering the prior knowledge of the learner.


Cognitive load theory: limitations of working memory and limitations of human's ability to process incoming information due to WM's limit.
Cognitive Approach to Visual Displays: visual complexity, number of subcomponents an image contains
Based on cognitive load theory, three cognitive load types by a visual display: intrinsic, germane and extraneous
The question is: can we reduce intrinsic load? -presenting the isolated concepts first for low prior knowledge learners, and -introducing the relationships of the concepts for high prior knowledge learners
- pre-training isolated concepts helo learners create schematas
- chunks for lower interactivity
- in this paper, experiments were done to see the success in comprehension and transfer of knowledge of the material, and two successive screens was more successful then one screen. it was more effective for higher prior knowledge


Extraneous cognitive load however, can be reduced by reducing the complexity of the format of the representation
Using iconic representations, and displaying controls next to the representations reduced the extraneous cognitive load and were effective for low prior knowledge learners. However created a expertise reversal effect for higher prior knowledge learners