Pathological Learning

Well-Regulated Learning

In well-regulated learning mediated by effective metacognition, the 3-dimensional phase space trajectory looks something like the ascending and converging helix of Figure 7 in "Cognition, Affect, and Learning."

Under the influence of a nefarious or misguided authority figure, a naive student might be induced to acquire a head full of erroneous beliefs, bizarre misconceptions, or unexamined flights of fancy. The same phenomenon can also arise in the case of the autodidactic learner whose own flights of fancy can lead to a mix of delusional beliefs. Psychologists might characterize such pathologies in terms of Schizophrenia or Dissociative Disorders.

Pathological Learning: Gaslighting, Flights of Fancy, and Delusions

However, this ideal experience in learning is by no means guaranteed. In this supplementary sidebar, we will explore some examples of pathological learning and complementary recovery processes.

In this ideal case, time (and progressive knowledge acquisition) flows upward from the base. The alternating swings in mood or affect (left-right in the helix) and the corresponding cycles in building and revising mental models (constructive learning and unlearning) damp down over time and converge to a reasonably stable and reliable state of knowledge at the conclusion of an episode in a generic learning journey.

Therapeutic Recovery

Let's look at the shape of the helix for such a pathological case. Time starts at the bottom of the blue helix and winds upward as the would-be learner acquires an increasingly bizarre collection of delusional beliefs, associated with increasingly bipolar swings in affect and erratic beliefs.

This case might be diagnosed as Schizophrenia, for example, with the subject in the grip of a variety of ungrounded beliefs ranging from whimsical flights of fancy to paranoid delusions.

It might also be characterized as a case of gaslighting by a nefarious (or simply misguided) authority figure who is literally driving the subject crazy with a headful of baloney.

In Therapeutic Recovery, the subject starts with a head full of delusions and systematically weeds out and discards their delusional beliefs, winding back down to a stable and reliable state of knowledge and appropriate practices. In this case, time starts at the top and the process winds down until the delusional beliefs are discarded and the subject regains their connection with reality.

For an example of Therapeutic Recovery, see this video on PsychoEducation.

The more general case involves a mixture of learning and unlearning requiring clinical diagnosis of long-held misconceptions and associated contra-indicated and maladaptive practices and supplanting them with saner alternatives.

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