''Characterizing unlearning as a phenomena and a study for devising unlearning curves"

Abstract

Learning phenomenon has been researched extensively but to "unlearn" an already learnt knowledge, has not been explored. The research thesis includes an empirical study for devising unlearning curves and a primary research based work to characterize unlearning as a phenomenon. This research work has two dimensions. One, design and conduct of experiments to explore the unlearning curves function. Second, the structuring of questionnaire and gathering primary information from some selected group of knowledgeable and concerned people. The learning process demands unlearning as much as learning. Unlearning process involves the process of restructuring past successes to fit the changing environment and situational conditions. Mistakes, poor performance or environmental uncertainty frequently trigger it. Under new circumstances, unlearning is difficult. Unlearning generates innovation, impoverisation and experimentation in new ways of doing things. It leads to the creative processes of learning, change and strategy development. It is a general observation that one has to first unlearn the past obsolete , information in order to learn new and modernized ways of doing things or solving problems. Thus, it would be quite contributory to devise unlearning curves through experimentation. 1 A number of factors affecting the process of unlearning were identified through the literature review and were later used in a questionnaire to develop relative importance using a decision making approach like AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process). "Intentions" "Punishment" and "Forgetting" were found to be the top three factors affecting the process of Unlearning. The spread of unlearning (short term) among subjects of different age groups is found through experimentation, so that the trend of unlearning can be found with respect to different age groups. The experiments were repeated in different environmental settings and the results are analyzed. Unlearning equations have been obtained for different age groups using SPSS. The 'curves were found to be logarithmic in nature.