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Psychology of Communication: fraction of selection
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Psychology of Communication: fraction of selection
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In the S-R-R (stimulus-response-reward) model of the learning process, it is assumed that the easier it is to make a particular response to a given stimulus, the more likely it is that that response will be retained. In this connexion, it's worth taking a look at what Wilbur Schramm calls the fraction of selection (Schramm & Porter 1982) :
It is based on Zipf's Principle of Least Effort. Zipf took the view that, all other things being equal, human behaviour will tend to flow into a path of minimum effort.
The principle of least effort is frequently criticised. For example, the Oxford Companion to the Mind (Gregory (ed.) 1987) has the following to say:
As a 'complacent cow' description of behaviour, this is not true even for complacent cows! Some degree of random searching - apparently having a basis of curiosity - is characteristic of virtually all organisms. We by no means take least effort as our maxim for behaviour: hence the Ziggurats of Babylon, the pyramids of Egypt, the temples, statues and paintings, as well as the philosophy of Greece.
Fair comment. However, the author seems to have overlooked the fact that building the pyramids didn't cost the Pharaohs much effort. They could of course have stayed in bed and not bothered about pyramids at all. However, they were motivated by the promise of reward in the afterlife. As for the slaves who did build them, it's quite possible that doing as they were told would cost less effort than rebellion would. The expectation of the reward of still being alive at the end of the day would probably also have seemed greater than if they rebelled.
Schramm's Fraction of Selection certainly does not provide an explanation of all human behaviour (it doesn't, for example, allow for the effect of 'effort justification'), but it seems to me that it does explain a lot. But maybe I'm just lazy.
It is this simple principle which explains why, say, car manufacturers have pre-paid reply coupons in their advertisements. The reward of glossy brochures and free information is promised without the effort of visiting the local retailer or queuing up to buy a stamp. The other day, a market research questionnaire from Renault dropped out of a magazine. If I answered a few simple questions, I would have a chance of winning a new Renault - reward. The questions were simple tick-boxes - very little effort. The card was reply-paid and didn't even have to be folded. I filled it in and sent it back. The Reader's Digest uses the same principle in its direct mail advertising - a chance to win a large amount of money and the requirement of very little effort in simply using the Yes or No envelope. There is only slightly less effort involved in using the Yes envelope - you don't have to buy a stamp. But Reader's Digest's direct mail advertising seems to be highly successful.
This principle is one you should bear in mind constantly throughout your practical work - how do you maximise reward and minimise effort?
For an interesting examination of the practical applications of some of these ideas, see Polly Woolley's dissertation, Strategies for developing uses of the Internet within education
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