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Pioneering Researchers Track Sudden Learning 'Epiphanies' (sciencedaily.com)
wisebabo quotes Science Daily:
Until now, researchers had not had a good way to study how people actually experienced what is called "epiphany learning." In new research, scientists at The Ohio State University used eye-tracking and pupil dilation technology to see what happens as people figured out how to win a strategy game on a computer. "We could see our study participants figuring out the solution through their eye movements as they considered their options," said Ian Krajbich, co-author of the study and assistant professor of psychology and economics at Ohio State. "We could predict they were about to have an epiphany before they even knew it was coming."
The original submission suggests, "This might be useful to determine when you are trying to teach a difficult subject to someone who you're afraid might be inclined to just nod their head. Or maybe this is how the Voight-Kampff test works. (Are you a replicant?)"
The original submission suggests, "This might be useful to determine when you are trying to teach a difficult subject to someone who you're afraid might be inclined to just nod their head. Or maybe this is how the Voight-Kampff test works. (Are you a replicant?)"
For myself it was algebra taught by nun at secondary school. 'Woot you can divide, subtract, add on BOTH sides of equal sign and is same thing!
I am firm believer that in maths in particular you need to go as far back as possible to get students to grok core concepts.
I hate idea that so many students are left behind in maths early on as don't have these core revelations.
As a kid, I loved the Coleco Wiz Quiz: The Computer Question & Answer Game. Each cartridge book had 1,001 trivia questions. I was on my third cartridge book when I had my first epiphany by noticing a specific pattern between all three cartridge books: the answer for question #1 was the always same, so was the answer for question #2, ..., so was the answer for question #1001. Since I had memorized the sequence for 1,001 questions and answers, it took me 15 minutes to go through the third cartridge book without ever reading the questions and answers. I got each and every question right. My immediate action was to throw the game into the trash, as knowing the sequence took the fun out of learning new trivia questions.
What I learned from this epiphany was that I could recognize patterns. When I got an Atari 2600 a few years later and started playing video games, I found more patterns and started beating the video games. I would later work at Accolade/Infogrames/Atari (same company, different owners, multiple personality disorder) for six years (1997-2004), testing 60+ video games, writing 30,000+ bug reports and leading ten titles through testing. When I got into IT support, I became an expert troubleshooter because I could recognize patterns and find solutions.