Aided Recall – The technique of provoking the remembrance of a subject ( in an interview and/or research) by offering that subject specific referents as in (having shown him a list of words), “What words have you seen that started with an A?” or (having shown him a magazine) “What advertisements have you seen?” See also: Aided recall test/Spontaneous recall
Free Recall – A form of recall research: a method for measuring both memory and forgetting. The subject indicates which advertisement, etc., he can still recollect. See also: Recall Research
Habit – A fixed sequence of stimulus and response; that is, behavior that is repeated in response to similar stimuli. For example: stimulus is the end of a dinner; response is the lighting of cigarette.
Incidental Learning – Incidental = by coincidence, not on purpose. That form of learning in which a person has not intended to learn. Only later does it become evident that something has been retained. The effect of many commercial and advertisements is considered to be the result of incidental learning. People do not purposely want to learn, for example, that company X regards itself as public-spirited; however, by means of an advertising campaign ostensibly about a product but one that promotes the public-service image, people absorb and retain the image the company has of itself. The case is different in, for example, advertisements that announce a special offer. The offer is “learned” intentionally (or not at all). See also: Learning/Intentional learning
Intentional Learning – A learning process directed towards a goal. Learning something for the sake of learning. Learning a language by taking course is an example of this kind of learning. See also: Learning/Incidental learning
Learning – A fundamental human function: the acquisition of information and knowledge. It is a process yielding results that are more or less durable, so that new potentials of behavior in a person may evolve or existing potentials may be altered. See also: Learning situation
Learning Effect – 1. The desired result of a learning assignment in a psychological experiment.
- A distortion of research results, because the person questioned has learned something extraneous to the project. Even though it falls outside the aims of the research project, his reaction will be different on the second occasion. He has become familiar with situation. The results will be even more distorted if the person is confronted with identical testing material on both occasions. See also: Testwise
Learning Situation – Every situation in which learning takes place. Each learning situation is comprised of three essential elements: See also: Learning
- The person who is learning (who ants to learn, or learns something by coincidence or unintentionally).
- The stimulus situation (the stimulus, the material to be learned, for example, a book, an activity, address, offer).
- The response (the reaction) following the actual learning process: the “proof” that something has been learned.
Observational Learning – Learning through the noticing or imitation of the activities of others. Often it occurs unintentionally; it proceeds, as it were, by itself, automatically. See also: Learning
Recognition – Method for measuring recall and forgetting, applied to research of learning process. The subject is given a list of words, letters, symbols,etc.; he has already learned a number of them. The subject has to indicate which words he remembers. It is a relatively easy method to determine the extent of what has been learned. See also: Learning
Trial – Attempt to complete learning as in how many trials are necessary for someone to learn a text by heart? How many trials does a subject require to learn to perform a specific task . See also: Learning