Circuit Idea/Introducing Sensorimotor Activities

Heuristic principles are used to build sensorimotor (kinesthetic) skills in students, in which a series of motor acts are performed on the studied circuit and its reactions to these impacts are perceived sensibly. "Live" objects are convenient for this (analogies, voltage bars and diagrams, graphic IV curves that show the state of the studied object on the screen.

To "feel" the action of more abstract electronic devices, they can be manually emulated and then their evolution to fully automatic can be "played out". Thus, for example, the role of an operational amplifier in negative feedback circuits can be performed first by a "manually controlled voltage source", then by a personal computer with analog I/O peripherals and appropriate software, and finally by a real operational amplifier. In this way, by actually "playing" the evolution of an electronic circuit from "manual" to fully automatic, the person mentally identifies with the studied object (personal analogy, empathy), imagines how it performs its functions, and thus understands even better its action.

Sensorimotor skills can even be constructed using thought experiments. So, for example, a common-emitter circuit can be studied by mentally "raising" and "lowering" the voltage of the transistor base; a common-base circuit - by "moving" the emitter voltage, and a differential amplifier - by "moving" both at the same time.