TOTE Units
Another slow news week. So I am back to writing about old ideas. Here is one that is worth a revisit.
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…TOTE (Test-Operate-Test-Exit) proposed by Miller, Galanter & Pribram (1960). Miller et al. suggested that TOTE should replace the stimulus-response as the basic unit of behavior. In a TOTE unit, a goal is tested to see if it has been achieved and if not an operation is performed to achieve the goal; this cycle of test-operate is repeated until the goal is eventually achieved or abandoned.
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The TOTE unit is not gone. At least not in computer programming. In that context, the equivalent is the venerable and durable DO loop. And the operation of the TOTE unit is the basis for the operations I have been imputing to modules.
When I wrote about the Halle Berry neuron, I described the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. A person sees something, say an actor’s picture, and cannot remember the name. “The name is on the tip of my tongue.” Later, perhaps the next morning, the person does remember the name. In my interpretation, a module is started by the initial experience and continues to operate (like a TOTE unit) until it activates the module that can say the name. I suggest that the Test-Exit condition is sometimes perceived as subjective closure and has the effect of reinforcement.
If this is a reasonable description of what is happening in the brain, it has several implications.
1. The modules are routinely operating in reference to goals. These goals are not necessarily stated clearly in words.
2. Closure and reinforcement correspond to reaching these goals.
3. Searching units are readily set into search mode by questions.
4. The satisfaction (closure) derived from finding an answer depends on the presence of an activated search module.
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These observations have implications for instruction. They suggest that instructional materials might to well to include more quest questions. (Note that not all questions are questions are quest questions.) They also suggest a way to develop independent learners: give them the habit of making their own quest questions.
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…TOTE (Test-Operate-Test-Exit) proposed by Miller, Galanter & Pribram (1960). Miller et al. suggested that TOTE should replace the stimulus-response as the basic unit of behavior. In a TOTE unit, a goal is tested to see if it has been achieved and if not an operation is performed to achieve the goal; this cycle of test-operate is repeated until the goal is eventually achieved or abandoned.
---
The TOTE unit is not gone. At least not in computer programming. In that context, the equivalent is the venerable and durable DO loop. And the operation of the TOTE unit is the basis for the operations I have been imputing to modules.
When I wrote about the Halle Berry neuron, I described the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. A person sees something, say an actor’s picture, and cannot remember the name. “The name is on the tip of my tongue.” Later, perhaps the next morning, the person does remember the name. In my interpretation, a module is started by the initial experience and continues to operate (like a TOTE unit) until it activates the module that can say the name. I suggest that the Test-Exit condition is sometimes perceived as subjective closure and has the effect of reinforcement.
If this is a reasonable description of what is happening in the brain, it has several implications.
1. The modules are routinely operating in reference to goals. These goals are not necessarily stated clearly in words.
2. Closure and reinforcement correspond to reaching these goals.
3. Searching units are readily set into search mode by questions.
4. The satisfaction (closure) derived from finding an answer depends on the presence of an activated search module.
---
These observations have implications for instruction. They suggest that instructional materials might to well to include more quest questions. (Note that not all questions are questions are quest questions.) They also suggest a way to develop independent learners: give them the habit of making their own quest questions.
posted by Selby Evans at 12:26 PM
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