Lesson 8: Cognitive Views of Learning

Cognitive Psychology

The school of psychology that focuses on how people perceive, store, and interpret information through such thought processes as memory, language, and problem solving.

Cognitive Science

• In the past few years, the study of memory and cognition has become interdisciplinary.

• The study of thinking, language, and, increasingly, the brain.

Perception, Learning, Memory, Reasoning, Language

Elements of the Cognitive Perspective

Perception

The ability, act, or process of becoming aware of one's surrounding environment through the senses.

Learning

Thorough knowledge or skill gained by study.

Memory

• The power or ability to remember past experiences.

• the ability to recall something that was learned, is another cognitive function that is very important to learning.

• Scientists usually divide it into short-term and long-term memory

Reasoning

The drawing of conclusions and judgments through the use of reason.

Language

• Although many animals besides human beings have a brain, nervous system, and some cognitive functions (that is, they share in a way many of the same processes of cognition)

• The one function of cognition that sets humans apart from other animals is the ability to communicate through

Encoding

transforming incoming information into a form that can be stored in memory.

Storage

Holding information in memory until it is needed.

Retrieval

Locating information in memory and getting it out so it can be used.

Sensory Memory

• Initial, momentary storage of information.

• Lasts only an instant;

• Stores almost exact replicas of all sensory stimuli experienced by that person.

• It is the first place where information is saved.

• are very brief, but they are precise, storing a nearly exact replica of a stimulus

Short-term memory

• Duration: 0-18 seconds

• Capacity: 7 +/- 2 items

• Encoding: mainly auditory

• The STM store has a duration of up to 30 seconds, has a capacity of 7+/-2 chunks, and mainly encodes information acoustically

7 ± 2 chunks

refers to a famous idea from cognitive psychology about the capacity of short-term memory, proposed by psychologist George A. Miller in 1956

Displacement or decay

Information is lost through

Maintenance rehearsal

• is the process of verbally or mentally repeating information, which allows the duration of short-term memory to be extended beyond 30 seconds

• remembering a phone number only long enough to make the phone call.

• This type of rehearsal usually involves repeating information without thinking about its meaning or connecting it to other information

Continuous rehearsal

“regenerates” or “renews” the information in the memory trace, thus making it a stronger memory when transferred to the long-term store

Long-term memory

• Duration: Unlimited

• Capacity: Unlimited

• Encoding: Mainly Semantic (but can be visual and auditory)

• has unlimited capacity and duration and encodes information semantically.

• Information can be recalled from LTM back into the STM when it is needed

• If the information is given meaning (elaborative rehearsal) it is passed on to the LTM.

Semantic memory

memory for general knowledge and facts about the world, as well as memory for the rules of logic that are used to deduce other facts.

Episodic memory

memory for events that occur in a particular time, place, or context

Retrieval cue

A stimulus that allows you to more easily recall a long-term memory because it is connected to that memory

Recall

specific information must be retrieved from memory

Recognition

when presented with a stimulus, you determine whether you’ve been exposed to it previously, or you identify the correct information from a list of alternatives.

Reconsolidation

Every time we “replay” a memory, we replace the original with a slightly modified version

Misinformation effect

• Exposed to misleading information, we tend to misremember.

• When a memory has been corrupted by misleading information.

False memories

• Filling in memory gaps with reasonable guesses.

• After more retellings, those guessed details—now absorbed into your memory— may feel as real as if you had observed them.

Deja vu

• That eerie sense that “I’ve experienced this before.”

• Cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger the retrieval of an earlier experience.

• (French for “already seen”)

Explicit memory

• Intentional or conscious recollection of information.

• Recalling the name of someone you met last week

Implicit memory

memories of which people are not consciously aware, but which can affect subsequent performance and behavior-automatic skills, like jumping out of the way of a car about to hit you.

Flashbulb Memories

Specific, important, or surprising events that are so vivid in memory that it is as if they represented a snapshot of the event

Schemas

organized bodies of information stored in memory that bias the way new information is interpreted, stored, and recalled.

Autobiographical memories

our recollections of circumstances and episodes from our own lives.

Forgetting

• is important to memory; if we couldn’t forget inconsequential details, they would get in the way of remembering more important information

• permits us to form general impressions and recollections

• also helps us avoid being burdened and distracted by trivial stores of meaningless data

Decay

the loss of information because of nonuse

Interference

information in memory disrupts the recall of other information

Cue-dependent forgetting

forgetting due to insufficient retrieval cues

Cognitive Learning Theory

• The mental processes involved in learning.

• a. Observing, b. categorizing, c. forming generalizations to make sense of the information provided.

• Learning results from internal mental activity and not from externally imposed stimuli.

Active participant

in the learning process use various strategies to process and construct their personal understanding of the content to which they are exposed.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Identifies and describes, in hierarchical order, the cognitive processes involved in learning.

Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, Create

Bloom’s Taxonomy Levels from lowest to highest

Jerome Bruner

• Development of conceptual understanding, cognitive skills, and learning strategies rather than the acquisition of knowledge.

• Learners should be encouraged to discover solutions via appropriate tasks that require the application of relevant critical thinking skills.

• Modes of Thinking: Enactive, Iconic, Symbolic

Enactive Level

learning takes place via direct manipulation of objects and materials

Iconic Level

Objects are represented by visual images and are recognized for what they represent

Symbolic Level

Learning can take place using symbols, objects, and mental images. Language is used to represent thoughts and experiences

David Ausubel

• Stressed the importance of active mental participation in meaningful learning tasks.

• Learning must be meaningful to be effective and permanent.

• Made a distinction between meaningful learning and rote learning

Meaningful Learning

relatable to what one already knows, so it can be easily integrated into one’s existing cognitive structure

Rote learning

the material to be learnt is not integrated/subsumed into an existing cognitive structure, but learnt as isolated pieces of information