ENS - Cognition

Weinstein et al. (2019) - Attention

Refers to the ability to focus on a specific stimulus, but is a limited capacity resources.

Weinstein et al. (2019) - Memory

A reconstructive resources, so memories are not objective or definitive. We are prone to remembering things falsely if this means they better align with existing schemas.

Gravitz (2019) - forgetting

It was thought that forgetting was a passive process of decay. It is thought that dopamine is essential to forgetting, as blocking dopaminergic neurones preserves memories. The more a memory is recalled, the stronger its neural network becomes and it eventually exists independently in the cortex as an engram (a physical representation of a memory).

D’Esposito and Postle (2015) - Working Memory

Coordinates processing when multiple goals are active. Attention is allocated to different internal representations. Fundamentally important for cognitive control. Need to consider all mechanisms together rather than in isolation.

Kahneman (1973) - Increased saliency theory

Attentional resources constantly shift around, so some things become more salient and determine where attention is focussed

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) - the multi-store model of memory

Memory consists of three distinct stages:

• Sensory memory - stores info in its raw sensory form

• STM - holds 5-9 items, lost if not rehearsed

• LTM - virtually unlimited capacity, retrieved back into STM for conscious awareness

Baddeley and Hitch (1974) - Working Memory Model

Suggests that there are different components for processing visual and verbal information, management is carried out by the

• Visuospatial sketchpad - keeps track of where we are in relation to other objects in our environment, manipulating visual information in LTM

• Phonological Loop - an inner ear that holds info in speech form for 1-2 seconds, written word must be coded into an articulatory code before entering

• Episodic Buffer - updated in the model, a backup store which communicates between LTM and WM, but least understood aspect

Ebbinghaus (1885) - the forgetting curve

• Listed nonsense syllables and rehearsed the information

  • Criticised for being the only participant in his studies

• Seems that most forgetting occurs 20 minutes after learning, and then begins to stabilise

• Need for repetition to secure learning

Loftus (1974)

Memory is malleable and constructive - subjective to distortion or exaggeration

Every time we remember something, we replace aspects with other pieces of information in our memories

Evidenced by Loftus and Palmer (1976) - participants changed the speed of the car depending on the question that was asked

Weinstein et al. (2019) - Spaced Practice

Opportunities to revise information over a longer period - benefits are seen after a delay rather than on an immediate test

• Retrieval Practice - Reconstructing something that you learned in the past from memory

• May increase storage strength so information is leaned deeper

• Interleaving - varying the order of learned information

Carpenter et al. (2020)

Learning experiences that minimize effort and increase the appearance of engagement inflate student's estimates of their learning.

Review research on illusions of learning - argue that student’s evaluations of effectiveness can be biased by factors unrelated to teaching.

Many students resist active learning – more disjointed so they feel they are not learning, but this impression may be an illusion.

Dunlosky et al. (2013)

• look at each learning technique and studies looking at their efficacy in different contexts  

• Wanted to understand how generalizable the techniques are in terms of student individual differences  

• Also looked at how well information has been retained e.g. through active recall, essay writing, cognitive tasks etc.  

• Concluded that practice testing and distributed practice were the most efficient forms of learning across conditions  

• However, re-reading seems to be the most popular technique amongst students even though it is not very effective  

Bjork and Bjork (2023) - Desirable difficulties

Preparing knowledge and skills for a difficult task so that learning can take place

e.g. changing the conditions of learning - recalling information in a different environment so the association with the information becomes stronger

• interleaving and active recall

• Working on storage length so that available information can also become accessible

However, goes against the intuitions of students - usually in favour of familiarity and frequency

Zepeda et al. (2020)

How to make difficulties more desirable for learners and teachers so that they are more likely to be implemented

• Find value in the task - explain to the learner why it is helpful for their learning

• Reduce the cost, or show that the benefits outweigh the cost

• Create appropriate challenges - tailor to the student’s own levels of ability

• Provide choice over how the learning functions

Miller and Oppenheimer (2014)

• Conducted studies with undergraduate students looking at the quality and quantity of notes with students, and the level of retention from the students  

• Compared handwritten notetaking with computer-based notetaking  

• Found that using laptops allowed for a greater quantity of notes to be taken  

• In terms of quality – there wasnt a difference between handwritten and laptop notes 

Wong and Lim (2023)

• Found that groups evaluated the quality of lectures the same, regardless of whether they made notes or took photos of the lectures. They also thought that the quality of their learning was the same  

• However, the notetaking group performed higher than the photo taking group in terms of recall  

• When people take photos, their minds wander more compared to when they are notetaking – because they are using less cognitive resources  

Design based learning - Ellefson et al. (2008)

combines scientific inquiry and engineering design – immersion learning cycle

• children had to design a bacterium which suited their given need 

• Found that it contributed to increased motivation and enjoyment of the topic.  

Rooszenbeek and van der Linden (2019)

Created an online browser game as intervention against online misinformation. Players take on the role of a fake news producer and learn common techniques that are used for creating fake news.

Participants had to rate the reliability of headlines and tweets both before and after playing the game, using real and current political issues

The elderly and conservatives are typically the most vulnerable to misinformation, however following the intervention there were no differences in this group, suggest the intervention make help the most vulnerable to risk.

Singh et al (2021)

Bilingual children have less social bias relative to monolingual peers – less implicit bias against racial outgroups.

Looked at the relationships between racial bias and cognitive factors (inhibitory control, flexibility and perspective taking). Also looked at language proficiency and parental education in 55 bilingual preschoolers. The children spoke English and Mandarin.

Implicit bias was predicted by cognitive flexibility, independent of the other factors. Explicit bias was only predicted by parental education. Findings suggest that increased cognitive flexibility, which may come from bilingualism, may also be associated with a reduction in implicit bias

Williams et al (2016)

Recruited 113 undergraduate students from the same city in Northern England. Microaggressions were rated in a survey, having to identify the number of times a microaggression occurred in the last 6 months along a Likert scale.

Participants were then presented with meme images and asked to rate how comfortable, acceptable, offensive or hurtful the image was alone a Likert scale.

People of colour and white people perceived racial memes to be offensive, but for people of colour these ratings were predicted by previous experiences of discrimination/microaggressions

Jefferson et al. (2021)

Looked at data gathered after the shooting of Michael Brown (officer involved shooting). In a controlled information environment, white Americans preferred information that supported claims of a justified shooting. However, black Americans preferred information that inferred the officer had behaved inappropriately.

Differences were stronger when individuals identified strongly with their racial group, or when expectations about Black Americans and police diverged.

Inductive Reasoning

Forming generalizations from evidence, conclusions might be probably but are not certain, usually develops earlier  

Deductive Reasoning

Reaching conclusions from a set of true premises, conclusions follows from the assumptions that the premises are true  

Conditional reasoning

Valid logic - modus ponens and modus tollens

Invalid logic - affirming the consequences and denying the antecedent

• Statements are easiest of they are both valid and believable – if they make sense for our prior knowledge of the everyday world  

• It can be harder to determine if a statement is valid if what they are saying is more unbelievable, makes us question what we know so it takes longer to determine  

Evans and Curtis-Holmes (2005)

• In one condition the participants are asked to give their responses as quickly as possible, in another they are given free time to respond  

• Found that participants were more likely to give the correct answer if the statement was valid and believable.  

• Under time pressure, if something is valid but unbelievable, participants responses are less accurate.  

• If something is invalid but believable and they have to respond quicker, they make more false positives  

Highlights that reasoning skills worsen under time pressure. The same pattern has been found when cognitive load is high  

Kahneman (2011)

• argues that fast thinking may be associated with faulty reasoning  

• System 1 – fast thinking, unconscious, automatic, everyday decisions – but more error prone  

• System 2 – slow, conscious, effortful, complex decisions – more reliable 

Nickerson (1998) - Confirmation bias

We are more responsive to evidence that confirms our beliefs, compared to evidence that challenges them.

It requires cognitive effort to change our minds so we avoid it

Tversky and Kahneman (1974) - Representativeness bias

Making judgements about the likelihood on how similar something is to a prototype or typical example  

We tend to overemphasise the similarity or difference between an object and its given class to help make this decision.

Johnson et al. (2017)

Conducted a literature review looking at SES and brain development.

Sensitivity to environmental stimuli is heightened during periods of rapid brain development – plasticity. Sensitive periods mean that plasticity is at its greatest.

Genes only explain more differences in brain variation when SES is high, when SES is low this is a better explaining factor for variation.

Low SES = more likely to lack cognitive stimulation and experience high stress, fewer buffering resources to adversity.

Could also experience nutrient deficiency – associated with poor academic performance. Prenatal stress can program the HPA axis towards excessive glucocorticoid secretion. Also more likely to experience inconsistent and harsh parenting, less nurturing and responsiveness, however most research in this area has only focused on the most harsh conditions.

Ellefson et al. (2020)

Cross-cultural study – 9- to 16-year-old Children from HK and UK. Found that EF consistently predicted numeracy skills across sites and gender. Suggests there are culture-specific associations between SES, EF and numeracy.

Numeracy skills assessed by maths tasks – addition and subtraction, fractions and algebra etc. Participants took part in 4 tasks which measured inhibition, WM, flexibility and planning. SES measured by parents reporting on their highest level of education and current occupation.

SES and EF are independent predicters of numeracy of HK, and for females in the UK. UK males show that EF mediates the link between SES and numeracy skills. 

Karbach and Unger (2014)

EF is a strong predictor of academic achievement, so interventions are popular. However, results aren't robust or consistent and could have limited transferability.

Many intervention studies are limited to a lab setting. Research suggests that individuals who are already performing will benefit most from cognitive interventions – have more efficient cognitive resources to implement new strategies

Diamond (2013) - Executive Functions

• refers to processes involved in goal directed behaviour, although there is no single agreed definition  

• Inhibition – impulse control, self-regulation, delated gratification  

• Shifting – task switching, cognitive flexibility  

• Updating – working memory

Wiebe et al. (2011) -

• modelled EF with 3-year-old participants, looking at whether EF is one single component, or whether working memory and inhibition are distinct  

• They found some support for WM and inhibition as distinct components, however they were both highly correlated with each other (0.76) - adds support to the unity argument  

Friedman and Robbins (2021)

• summarized the findings with adults, referring to EF as cognitive control, conducted a meta-analysis looking at the findings across the literature  

• There is an accumulation of research suggesting that EF is a single component, so the different aspects should not be measured separately, the underlying factor should always be EF  

Kim et al. (2021) - Theory of Mutualism

May be that growth in one domain influences the growth in another domain, whereas we develop more academic skills these may develop our executive functions – bidirectional relationship

• May be important to develop executive functions in early years education so that these can be applied to academic skills as the children age  

• Could be helpful to match which aspects of EF are needed for a given academic task – can be helpful for both the teacher and the learner  

Linebarger (2014)

Children watch a cookie monster video teaching them the benefits of waiting to eat a sweet treat.

Those that watched the video were able to wait for longer, and used the same behaviour regulation techniques as cookie monster in the video

Interventions may be longer lasting if they treat EF as a unitary item, and target all aspects of EF.

Tsapali et al. (2018)

Conducts a review considering how cognitive development is studied in the classroom context, considers the strengths and limitations of each.

• More ecological validity

• Need to use simple everyday language, build effective rapport, remove distractions in the room.

• Children can give incomplete or irrelevant answers to questionnaires. Ethics – opt out versus opt in consent

• Ultimately, conducting research with children requires more flexibility

Feng et al. (2019)

Conducted a study to understand the neural mechanisms underpinning retrieval

Under EEG, participants were asked to judge the ages of faces, and after studying had to recall if they had seen the faces before

Researchers compared brain activity and identified that when spaced learning was used, there was more similarity in neural patterns.

Repetition strengthens these patterns to make retrieval from LTM easier.

Agarwal et al. (2021)

Conducted a literature review to measure the effects of retrieval practice on student learning.

2000 extracts of real-world settings were screened, and it was found that 57% of the identified studies identified medium or large benefits to retrieval practice, both in schools and university.

The practice worked in any form and no optimal conditions were identified, suggesting that this is a flexible technique.

Tullis et al. (2018)

Conducted a study investigating student’s learning preferences. University students took part in a word pair task where they were tested two days later. They found that learners overall preferred restudying rather than using testing as a means of retrieval.

The students in this sample all had a psychology background, so there could have been an extent of bias in their behaviour if they had any prior understanding of retrieval.

Carpenter (2023)

Conducted a literature review of interventions that can increase student’s decisions to use retrieval practice.

It is not enough to tell students about the benefits of retrieval - have to see them through performance based feedback.

Important to reduce the levels of effort and errors in retrieval

Licorish et al. (2018)

Conducted semi-structured interviews with students, asking how Kahoots influenced their motivation for learning.

Found that competitiveness motivated students to think quickly and critically. Also allowed content to be repeated in a novel way

D’Intino (2022)

• Defines executive functions as an umbrella term for higher order cognitive thinking that supports goal-directed behaviour  

• Critical review – finds evidence for the importance of improving EF in students, evaluated the six most widely evaluated books that look at EF  

• Found that all handbooks promote explicit instructions and feedback to help students develop their EF  

• However, critiques the handbooks for lacking rigorous support  

Pascual et al. (2019)

• Meta-analysis to understand the relationship between EF and academic performance in primary school 

• Found that EF was a good predictor of academic performance, with the effect size being stronger for mathematics compared to language 

• Then looked at individual EF components – WM had the highest predictive weight for performance  

• EF is more predictive of academic performance at early ages, argue that it has significance in describing future performance  

Morgan et al. (2018)

• Longitudinal nationally representative study in the US – incredibly large sample sizes of Kindergarten children  

• Measured EF as working memory, cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control  

• Administered standardised tests of academic and vocabulary skills  

• Found that all aspects of EF positively and significantly predicted reading, maths and science achievement  

• Inhibitory control reduced externalizing and internalizing behaviours – can support wider success in the school environment  

Niabum and Munakata (2022)

• Argues that lab-based tasks do not capture the real world contexts that require executive functions, should not have benefits beyond this setting  

• Argue that it is instead better to train EF engagement rather than train EF directly 

• Interventions should have contextual relevance that translate to real world outcomes   

• Encouraging children to engage in EF has more promise for real-world outcomes that interventions to improve EF capacities  

Hackman et al. (2015)

• Took data from a wider longitudinal study, where EF was measuring by looking at WM and planning 

• SES measured by looking at income to needs ratio and maternal education  

• Found that lower SES predicted worse EF performance from as young as age 4, and this relationship persisted – suggesting the developmental trajectory of EF is set early on  

• However, there is some plasticity in EF even after early childhood – improvements in SES were associated with better EF over time  

• The relationship could be mediated by a positive home learning environment and maternal sensitivity  

Kellens et al. (2023)

• Quasi-experimental study of an intervention that is designed to improve EF through high quality teacher child interactions and a supportive classroom structure  

• Data collected across 8 schools in Belgium – RCT design  

• Teachers reported daily executive problems after the intervention and these were compared against SES  

• Found that low-SES children had more EF problems at the start of the study (measured EF with multiple components)  

• Found that EF problems remained stable in the experimental low SES group, but increased in the low SES control group  

Gustavason et al. (2022)

A twin and adoption study seeking to understand the genetic relationship between EF and intelligence in adulthood. Participants took part in 6 EF tasks and a Weschler IQ test. Then used genetic modelling  

• Looked at common EF – considered EF as a unitary factor  

• Found that EF and intelligence were linked concepts, and were highly heritable (0.72) 

• Argues that EF and intelligence are linked but are genetically distinct concepts 

• While the heritability is high, it is not 100%, suggesting that genetics may not offer a complete explanation 

Friedman et al. (2015)

A longitudinal twin study that considers the stability and malleability of executive function skills from adolescence to early adulthood. Seeks to understand the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to stability and change in EF  

• Measured common EF, updating and shifting 

• Found that EF is largely stable across this developmental window – with a correlation of .86 between the two waves  

• Found that 100% of the stability is due to genetics – this is the role of the parents  

• However, there was still an extent of change in EF ability that was shaped by non-shared environmental influences  

• Suggests that while EF is largely genetically determined and fixed, there is space for change and flexibility which can be influenced by the environment  

Niszcota et al. (2022)

• Talks about the biased blind spot – people believe that they are less biased than others, even when they are presented with common biases that effect human thinking  

• Participants assessed their susceptibility and the susceptibility of others to psychological and economic biases, in their Polish or English  

• Participants speaking their second language showed resilience to the bias blind spot – language learning could develop meta-cognition  

Leshin and Rhodes (2023)

• Used stories to explain structural financial inequalities to children  

• High status power condition – heard a story about a high-status group called the Toogits, who created rules that allowed them to be paid lots of money, versus a low status group called the Flurps, who had less money because of these rules  

• RCT – intervention group compared to controls  

• Found that participants who heard the story had more positive attitudes towards the low status group than the controls, and were more likely to distribute resources equitably  

• Suggests that education can reduce biased thinking, even in children

Warikoo et al. (2016)

• Explores how racial bias effects children in schools – teachers treat students differently depending on their race, which impacts racial disparities in academic achievement  

• African American students are less likely to be considered gifted and talented compared to their White or Asian American peers  

• Argues that change is necessary because the number of students of colour in mainstream schools is increasing, but the majority of teachers are white  

Losinski et al. (2019)

• Conducted a thematic review to look at the effects of school-based practices to reduce discriminatory biases  

• Argue that schools can be ideal settings to reduce biased attitude's, through positive behavioural interventions  

• Can allow for a more equitable schooling experience and educational outcomes 

Weng et al. (2022)

• Introduced a design-based learning task with Art and design postgraduates 

• Investigated the depth of learning before and after the DBL approach compared against a control class. Also examined students’ evaluations of a deep learning approach 

• Gave students a real-life scenario of turning an unused area of a library into a recitation area that didn’t disturb the studies of others  

• Improved problem-solving, critical thinking and subject knowledge  

• Also improved motivation and engagement 

• However, this is using design-based learning with students on a design course – already have skills that are suited to this style of learning  

English and King (2015)

• Applies design-based learning in a three-year longitudinal study with fourth grade classes 

• Used a context of exploring aerospace dynamics, involving designing, testing and redesigning a paper plane 

• Found that there is a balance needed between teacher input of new concepts and student’s application of this learning 

• Found that productive collaboration was stimulated, design skills became more sophisticated, problem-solving developed and content knowledge improved.  

Department for Education (2025)

Only 45.9% of state school pupils leaving school with a passed GCSE in English and Maths

Education neuroscience should play a role in understanding how to optimise learning and broaden opportunities for all students

Department for Education (2022)

The higher the percentage of sessions missed across the key stage at KS2 and KS4, the lower the level of attainment at the end of the key stage.