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strathspey@strathspey.org:44701

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mlamontbrown

mlamontbrown

RE: Teaching and guns

March 14, 2006, 11:27 a.m. (Message 44701, in reply to message 44673)

Richard wrote:
 
> There was a psych study that proved how any reinforcement positive or
> negative can work if consistant, but inconsistant reinforcement tended
> to cause problems. Even child abuse is an effective teaching method of
> consistant. To carry this allusion farther, the societal problems to
> day have more to do with inconsistant reinforcement that breeds
> distrust.

I thought there was evidence to show that the optimum way of learning was "random
rewards", i.e. when you got a reward for doing something correctly, but not every
time.

I can remember finding this worked with me - a four day dancing weekend, with the
teacher giving out no more than half a dozen "Well done xxxxx" during the weekend.
(where xxxx is someone's name) ---- Everyone worked really hard to try and get one of
these sparse phrases  of individual praise.

OK, it is not what I actually do now, having been taken up with the modern approach
of "giving plenty of encouragement" - I even try to limit the number of "buts" when I
tell them something is "well done", and when I am concentrating I even remember to
phrase the qualifier with "it would have been even better if ......." instead of
"pity you forgot...."

I think the trick is not to reward efforts with either silence or criticism and fault
finding.

Malcolm
 
Malcolm L Brown
York

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