The Measurement of Verbal Information in Psychology and Education

ISBN-13: 9783642656392 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 188 str.

Klaus Weltner; Barbara M. Crook

Opis

Information theory and cybernetics have developed along somewhat different lines in Europe and in the U. S. A. This book is to be seen as a contribution towards bridging the gap. Anyone who seeks to apply information theory in the fields of education and psychology very soon comes up against a central diffi culty: in the form in which it was developed by Shannon information theory excludes the semantic aspect. This problem is fundamental for in education, as in psychology, the semantic aspect is the very heart of the matter. Thus, while Attneave, Miller and Quastler, among others, successfully employed the concepts and units of measurement of in formation theory in the interpretation of the findings of experimental psychology, they were obliged to restrict their work to its syntactic and statistical aspects. Before we can make use of the methods and results of information we have to solve the central problem: How can theory in actual teaching, we measure the semantic information of a verbal message? The only way to do this is by extending the theory. A special concept has been deve loped for this purpose: subjective information. In place of an objectively measurable quantity (frequency of sign sequences) we set an empirically determined one: the subjective probability with which the recipient expects a certain sign sequence."

Spis treści

1 Foundations of Information Theory.- 1.1 The Communication System.- 1.1.1 Introduction.- 1.1.2 The Basic Problems of Information Theory.- 1.1.3 The Simple Communication System.- 1.2 Concepts of Information Theory.- 1.2.1 Information.- 1.2.1.1 Signs, Repertory, Alphabet.- 1.2.1.2 Frequency, Probability, Field.- 1.2.1.3 Information and Probability of Expectation.- 1.2.2 Coding, Binary Coding, Supersigns.- 1.2.3 The Product Field.- 1.2.4 Conditional Probability.- 1.2.5 Transinformation.- 1.2.6 Redundancy.- 1.2.6.1 Information Flow Rate, Channel Capacity.- 1.2.6.2 Noise, Interfering Source.- 1.2.7 Surprise Value.- 2 Measurement of the Information of Written Language and the Concept of Subjective Information.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Statistically Based Procedures.- 2.2.1 Statistics of Letters and Combinations of Letters.- 2.2.2 The Method of Newman and Gerstman.- 2.2.3 Word-Frequency Statistics.- 2.3 Shannon’s Guessing-Game Method.- 2.4 The Concept of Subjective Information.- 2.5 Digitizing Prediction by Means of Branching Diagrams.- 2.5.1 Derivation of Limits for Subjective Information by Means of Digitized Prediction.- 2.5.2 Procedure for a More Exact Determination of Subjective Information.- 2.5.3 Subjective Information of Different Texts; Age Dependence; Intelligence Dependence.- 2.5.3.1 Hsub as a Function of the Text.- 2.5.3.2 Hsub as a Function of Age.- 2.5.3.3 Hsub as a Function of the Recipient’s Intelligence.- 2.6 Extension of the Procedure.- 2.7 Simplified Procedures for Determining Subjective Information.- 2.7.1 Simplified Procedure (1); Prediction by Letters.- 2.7.2 Simplified Procedure (2); Prediction by Syllables Simplified Procedure (3); Prediction by Words.- 2.7.3 Combined Procedures: Measurement of the Subjective Information of Upper and Lower Case Letters.- 3 Transinformation Analysis.- 3.1 The Basic Concept of Transinformation Analysis.- 3.2 Didactic Transinformation.- 3.2.1 Correlation between the Subjective Information of the Basic Text and Achievement Tests Related to the Teaching Program.- 3.2.2 Iteration Procedure for Complete Determination of the Didactic Information.- 3.3 Semantic Transinformation.- 3.3.1 Synonyms; Semantic Potential.- 3.3.2 Semantic Transinformation for Antonyms; Semantic Differential.- 3.4 Transinformation in Reading Processes.- 3.5 The Semantic Information of Graphic Representations.- 3.5.1 Efficiency in Terms of Information Theory.- 3.6 Memory Experiments.- 3.7 Cognitive-Process Curve.- 4 Learning and Teaching in the Light of Information Theory.- 4.1 The Model of Information Reception and Processing in Man.- 4.1.1 Inflow Capacity of the Short-Term Store.- 4.1.2 Present Duration.- 4.1.3 Memory.- 4.2 Learning Viewed in the Light of Information Theory.- 4.2.1 Transinformation, Redundancy, “Informedness”.- 4.3 Elements of a Theory of Teaching.- 4.3.1 Limits of Perception Capacity.- 4.3.2 Limits of Memory Inflow Capacity.- 4.3.3 Limits of Capacity of Short-Term Store.- 4.3.4 Readability Diagrams.- 4.4 Elements of a Theory Relating to Basic Texts.- 4.4.1 Coherence Structure Diagram.- 4.4.2 Teaching Success as a Function of Coherence of Subject Matter.- 4.5 Insight and Transfer.- 4.5.1 Insight.- 4.5.2 Problem-Oriented Instruction.- 4.5.3 Transfer and Transinformation.- 5 Use of the Guessing Game to Determine Subjective Information: A Practical Guide.- 5.1 Selection of Text Sample and Preparation of Experimental Material.- 5.1.1 Length of Text Samples.- 5.1.2 Selecting the Sample from the Whole Text.- 5.1.3 Technical Preparation of the Experimental Material.- 5.1.4 Experimental Design.- 5.2 How to Carry out the Experiment: Some Examples.- 5.2.1 Use of the Branching Diagram.- 5.2.2 Simplified Procedure (1): Prediction by Letters.- 5.2.3 Simplified Procedure (2): Prediction by Syllables.- 5.2.4 Simplified Procedure (3): Prediction by Words.- 5.3 Special Problems in Conducting the Experiments.- 5.4 Guessing Games Using Computers with Typewriters as Input and Output Units.- 5.5 Tables and Graphs.- 5.5.1 How to Use the Tables.- 5.5.2 How to Use the Graphs.- Appendix. Notes.- Literature.- Author Index.

O autorze

Klaus Weltner ist an der Universität Frankfurt tätig.