Xtranomics and The New Science of Learning

After my decision to add the Xtranormal assignment to my class, I had to determine exactly how best to implement it. In the first iteration of this I showed my students a short clip I had made using xtranormal (see it here) and then assigned my students the following (full version of updated and current instructions here):

• Use The Economic Way of Thinking as a plot device in a short film created with xtranormal software.
• Be Creative. 
• PG-13
• Minimum run time of 4 minutes for full credit

My goal was simply to get the students to be creative and have fun. My hope was that this would cause them to think about economics in their life and embed this way of thinking into their long term thought process. The results were very positive, but my students were still not at the place I wanted them to be at. In trying to find methods to further improve this assignment, I read The New Science of Learning by Donald T. Wargo and Olga Vilceanu. This article was both very encouraging and helpful for improvement (full paper here, summary here)

Below, I will list some statements from The New Science of Learning and provide emphasis and commentary for how Xtranomics is informed by and takes action on these findings.

(1)  Learning is computational and probabilistic, using Bayesian Logic. Humans are born with computational skills used to infer language structure, cause and effect, as well as basic statistical regularities and co-variations. This Bayesian model of probabilistic thinking challenges both Skinnerian reinforcement learning and Chomsky’s “nativist” model of an inborn facility for grammar and syntax (Gopnik 2004). In early childhood, humans learn actively, testing their environment through observation, hypothesizing, experimentation, conclusion, and incorporation of feedback.

My students first observe a basic lecture on thinking like an economist; they then observe examples of prior Xtranomic movies. The next step in the process is for them to create their own movie (so they must hypothesize and experiment). There is then explicit feedback.

(2)  Learning is fundamentally social is nature. Parents, peers, and teachers offer social cues about what and when to learn, in formal and informal learning environments. Interpersonal interaction among students at any age increases the quality and amount of learning. In instances where tutoring involves active learning strategies, students test up to two standard deviations above classroom teaching limited to passive learning strategies (Meltzoff et al. 2009). Benjamin Bloom (“Bloom’s Taxonomy”) calls this the “2 Sigma Problem”. The goal is to create teaching/learning conditions under large group instruction that allow the individual student to achieve the same level they would under individual instruction by a skilled tutor (Bloom 1984; Guskey 2007).

My students are strongly encouraged to work in groups for this project.

(3)  Designated brain circuits link perception and action. The same “mirror neurons” that allow readers and television viewers to identify and share an emotional connection with characters by entering a state of “suspended disbelief” are activated in real life. Damasio and Meyer (2008) demonstrated that both acting yourself or watching others act has the same effect on the brain and activates the same areas of the brain. In addition, active learning produces faster and more satisfying results through imitation, shared attention, and prompting of empathic understanding.

Having students write scripts and also view some of the other movies created by their classmates fulfills this aspect of the New Science of Learning

(4)  The hippocampus, primarily during rapid-eye movement sleep (“REM sleep”), processes memories and sends them to varied and specific parts of the brain for long-term storage. Multiple retrieval and strong emotional content strengthen the path to long-term memory. As a matter of fact, they are conditions precedent for and the only two reasons the brain creates long-term memories.  All other information in the short- term memory is deleted during sleep. Furthermore, the neurotransmitter that controls the persistence of long-term memory is dopamine, the brain’s “reward chemical” which motivates us to seek things we view as rewarding (Rossato et al. 2009; Shen et al. 2008). Finally, long-term memories do not actually exist in any one place in the brain, but are actually systems of neurons connected together. (Neuroscientists say, “Neurons that fire together, wire together”.) Each time we call up a memory, it must be “reconsolidated” by the brain, that is, reconstructed into a gestalt. Multiple retrieval strengthens these long-term memories.

The students are told to be as creative as they want (up to a PG-13 rating); and they have certainly demonstrated that they will push the bounds of this guideline. So they are definitely producing and viewing strong emotional content. By making this assignment fun and rewarding, my hope is that much dopamine is being released.