17-03-2014, 09:37 PM
Abstract—Situated in the network-based learning
environment, the non-rationality of the learners in the virtual
learning community makes it a demanding for the
establishment of the incentive mechanism to ensure the success
of the learning community. First of all, this paper gives an
outline to the prospect theory and the necessity e of the
establishment of incentive mechanism in virtual learning
environment is also illustrated. Then based on the theoretical
framework of the prospect theory, some suggestions are put
forward such as improving the network-base learning
environment by the pulse type, dividing the awards program,
modifying the performance manifestation, increasing the
punishing measures for the low probability.
Keywords- prospect theory; virtual learning community;
incentive mechanism
I. I THE RESEARCH BACKGROUND
Prospect theory is co-founded and developed by the
D.Kahneman and A.Tverksey who are Nobel Laureate in
Economics. According to a large number of well-designed
sociology, psychology experiments, they studied that how
people make judgments and decision-making in conditions
of uncertainty and revealed the non-rational decision-making
rules in conditions of uncertainty. In the Virtual Learning
Community, learners tend to show all kinds of irrational state
in the learning process. Prospect theory provides a new
useful way to explain these phenomena and establish
incentive mechanism.
II. AN OVERVIEW OF THE PROSPECT THEORY
A. Theory premise of Prospect theory--- Human's
rationality is limited
Human's rationality is limited. The theory was first put
forward by Simon. D.Kahneman and A.Tverksey inherited
and proved this viewpoint. There are two types of research
contradicting the entirely rational assumptions. First, in real
life, people do the decision-making based upon Easy-toevaluation
clues instead of the real value of the items. Ice
cream experiment published by Professor Xikaiyuan in 1998
explains this viewpoint. There are a couple of Hakendas ice
cream, ice cream cup A seven ounce, packed in five ounce
cup inside, he looked about to overflow; Another cup of ice
cream B is 8 ounces, but packed in a 10 ounce cup, so he
looked no fill. For which you are willing to pay more for ice
cream money? When the reference information is
insufficient, they decide how much they pay for the different
ice cream on ground that the ice cream is full or not.
Second, it is the concept of “Mental Accounts” raised by
Professor Celler from University of Chicago Business
School. People will deposit hard-earned money into a bank,
but when they have a windfall, they would spend the lot.
This shows that people set up two different accounts in their
mind for the two kinds of the money. In a wider sense,
mental accounts prove that people tend to put their money in
the arbitrarily separated mental interval and make different
reactions.