Pavlov's Mouse - The Laws of Computer Learning

Computers are a different animal. Perhaps, the best way to describe this is by telling you about a friend of mine. This friend is a highly successful professional. My friend is also intelligent, but has trouble with what may be termed "Computer Basics". So, I ask myself, "Is my friend not very smart?' I know that intelligence is not what is keeping my friend from grasping "Computer Basics", but something else.

That something else, I would like to call Neuroskips. What are "Neuroskips" you ask? Neuroskips are Receptor Disconnects. What are Receptor Disconnects? Receptor Disconnects are broken or under-developed pathways of association. Under-developed pathways of association are memories that fail due to cognitive disassociation. Many of us have heard of Pavlov's Dog. Ivan Pavlov was a Russian Physiologist who studied classical conditioning - or put more simply the first basic laws of learning. Pavlov had noticed that his dog started salivating when he came in the room, even when he didn't have any food.

Pavlov, remember he is the Physiologist, believed that there were certain things "hard-wired" into his dog that the dog did not need to learn, such as, salivating in the presence of food. This idea of something that does not have to be learned, but is already genetically hard-wired is referred to as "Unconditioned Response". Neroskips fit into this senario, but are derived in part by "Conditioned Responses" which are responses that are learned. I believe that many first time computer users have experienced their first Neuroskips based on conditioned responses. Remember that conditioned responses are the opposite of unconditioned responses in that they are learned. While Pavlov noticed his dog salivating, had he been alive during the age of desktop computers, his studies in classical conditioning may have included a mouse instead of a dog.

After the blinking cursor came the mouse. The early macintosh computers had introduced the mouse and a "user friendly" computer experience while the IBM desktops relied on DOS. While DOS was limited to a keyboard only input, the introduction of the mouse in the early mac desktops gave Pavlov's dog a run for its money. The mouse embraced - to a degree - the human conditioned response of depth, spacial movement, touch and feel. Xerox had tested the mouse years before with children, but like many innovations the mouse was sidelined until resurrected by the early macintosh desktop operating system. This is where Neuroskips come in. Neuroskips is a word I have invented to help describe what I have observed related to the laws of computer learning. Computer learning involves Pavlov's concepts introducing some variations that come with experimenting with a mouse instead of a dog.

If we were to gauge a person's very first experience using a mouse, we would see a Neroskip in action. The Neroskip happens when the human conditioned to the 3 dimensional world around us all collides with the virtual world of the mouse. Neroskips cause the first time mouse user to anticipate the mouse pointer to be in a different area on the screen than where the mouse pointer actually is. The first time mouse user by continuing to follow "Conditioned Responses" related to the natural world has Neroskips in the virtual world of the computer. The laws of computer learning can therefore be deduced from a sort of Pavlov's Mouse experience that we all have encountered.

When our associations are built upon conditioned responses in the external world, our first encounter with a mouse lends itself to a better understanding of why my intelligent friend, who though being intelligent, still struggles with computer basics. It would seem that my friend is experiencing a further complication of Pavlov's Mouse. The conditioned responses that have been learned by my friend in the real world are creating Neuroskips that are in direct conflict with the laws of computer learning in the virtual world.

Put more plainly, the fundamental barrier to computer learning is created when a divide exist between conditioned responses of the real world and the interaction with the virtual world of computing. The laws of computer learning and thus Neuroskips apply not only to my intelligent friend, but to myself and everyone who becomes a computer user. The answer to overcoming the Neuroskips first experienced in Pavlov's Mouse appears to depend on how hardwired our conditioned responses are. Software and computers are constantly changing and evolving. The interface of yesterday's operating system - say Windows XP- elicits repeated neuroskips when encountering Windows 8.

Getting to Know You!

My first experience with a computer was staring at a blinking cursor. The computer was there looking at me, as if to say, "What are you going to do?" I remember typing something like an algebraic equation and "presto!" something appeared on the screen after a few moments! I was both fascinated and a bit underwhelmed at the same time.

There was of course the other box - the television. I remember watching the Captain Kangaroo show as a child. This was of course long before the advent of Skype, so I reached out with my imagination having long conversations with both Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Green Jeans. Fast-forward a few years and my wife is looking over my shoulder as I write this reminding me that I should write young. Yes, and she is always right. Anyone ever hear of Pong? Pong is like the great grand daddy of interactive games. My brothers and I played it for hours on our large console TV - it was before the blinking cursor, it was great! Pong was way, way better than those vibrating football games that carried a felt football. OK, write young. So, here goes!

Oops, I'll rewind just a little bitsey bit more, OK? I remember a friend who had been very excited about completing his education in keypunch. The only problem was that about the time my friend graduated from learning keypunch cards for computers, software programming was born. I still remember the look on his face as he decided to join the Navy and leave the world of computers behind him.

Over the years, I watched the personal computer continue to evolve. Some of the first desktop computers would make someone a great boat anchor. I bought one of these boat anchors and took it apart to see how it fit together. I managed to get it back together and get everything working again. I had around that time went to work for a company that had bought a new desktop computer, but wasn't sure what to do with it. There was very limited software and only a few commands. I was one of the company's sales persons, but recall color coding the keys of the keyboard and writing instructions on what keys to type and what it would do. This was of course a chance for me to say "Hello, computer!" and discover what was under the hood of the newest technology.

I remember the office staff, the way they looked at the computer and kept their distance some. It was sort of like the Norman Rockwell painting " The Street was never the Same Again". Yep.