Applied Behavioral Analysis: Errorless Learning

• An educational technique to reduce frustration in learning for kids with autism or behavioral issues
• Focuses on giving children the answer and having them repeat it (like drilling), emphasizing what is called explicit memory rather than implicit or unconscious memory.
• Also key is to not react when the wrong answer is giving. You just give them the right answer after repeating the question to yourself. It seems like an extremely non-violent way to teach.
• Another take is you want to go slow enough to not make any errors the first time. And that errors are the result of inappropriate speed or other conditions. They are not a natural part of the learning process.
• Those with memory impairment can actually crystalize incorrect responses, and so avoiding all errors is ideal for them.
• Apparently it is most popular and widespread in animal training.
• It can also be framed as always selecting tasks at the perfect level of difficult to induce flow states.
• Another key: if one learns without negative stimuli, one does not exhibit aggressive behaviors! We are motivated only by positivity, not the avoidance of pain. It sounds like the Garden of Eden.
• Errorless learning beats trial and error learning.
  • The pigeon experiments basically show that errorless learning is possible if the "wrong" choice is easy to avoid at first, and the ability to make a mistake is increased over time.
  • Basically, at every stage of learning, you want to assure success, and not overwhelm the learner to learn by trial and error.
  • This of course works for learning in a "right"-"wrong" setting, but perhaps not for research. It may also work for moral or behavioral instruction.
  • It's used for example, to rehabilitate Parkinson's patients.

Here are it's applications to Learning Math
And I absolutely believe this: "Seeing maths worked out in real time, with failures, and how a professional deals with failure, is essential for learning, and at the reasearch level. I remember thinking after an all day session with Michael Barratt in 1959: "Well, if Michael Barratt can try one damn fool thing after another, then so can I!", and I have followed this method ever since. (Mind you his tries were not all that "damn fool", but I am sure you get the idea.) The secret of success is the successful management of failure, and this is perhaps best learned from observation of how a professional deals with failure."

Which is why candid livestreams are so important in the absence of professional apprenticeships.