Cognitive Learning Theory

Cognitive Learning Theory
Learners are active. They are not simply empty vessels waiting to be filled. They are also not simply responding passively to changes in their environments. Cognitive Learning theories explain learning by focusing on changes in mental processes and structures that occur as a result of people’s efforts to make sense of the world. Behaviorism states that learning is a change in behavior. Cognitive theories focus on thinking rather than just behavior.

Knowledge Understanding depends on what learners know. New experiences are interpreted in light of what is already known—so current knowledge is the foundation for new knowledge.

Learners construct understanding—they don’t simply remember what the teacher says. They relate what they are learning to what they already know and they try to make sense of it.

Two types of knowledge Domain-specific knowledge: information that is useful in a particular situation or that applies mainly to one specific topic. General knowledge: information that is useful in many different kinds of tasks; information that applies to many situations.

Learning is a change in the person’s mental structures that creates the capacity to demonstrate different behaviors. Notice how this definition is more complex than the definition of learning from the last chapter (change in behavior).

An analogy: the computer
A model (which is what this analogy is): a representation that allows learners to visualize what they can’t observe directly. This model will help you to visualize what is going on in your own brain and those of your students. An analogy: the computer Input (typing on keyboard) User Information processing: a theory of learning that explains how stimuli enter our memory systems, are selected and organized for storage, and are retrieved from memory. Computer: RAM Hard disk

3 components of information processing model
Information stores: repositories that hold information, like a computer’s RAM and hard drive. Information stores in the information processing model are sensory memory (no real computer analogy), working memory (like RAM), and long term memory (like hard drive). Cognitive processes: intellectual actions that transform information and move it from one store to another. Includes attention, perception, rehearsal, encoding, and retrieval. Like software in computers. Metacognition: awareness of and control over one’s own cognitive processes.

Sensory Memory The information store that briefly holds stimuli from the environment until they can be processed. Your brain receives stimuli (remember that is the Latin plural of “stimulus”) from the outside world and it becomes part of sensory memory. The stimuli are like input on a keyboard from the outside world. This memory in people is extremely brief and you only retain material you actually process even though your sensory memory is picking things up all the time. Actually, this is the least effective part of this computer analogy because a keyboard doesn’t remember what is typed on it but your brain does retain what you sense at least for a little while.

Perception The process of detecting and assigning meaning to that which is sensed.

Perception There’s a good chance that you do not recognize the characters above (Chinese). These marks are likely meaningless to you, although I recognize the one on the top left as “chong” (the first character in the word that designates “Chinese”).

Perception Gestalt: German for “pattern” or “whole.” Gestalt theorists hold that people organize their perceptions into coherent wholes This is why you see this image as an elephant and not just a collection of x’s.

Perception Prototype: a best example or best representative of a category. Feature analysis (bottom-up processing): we recognize things based on their individual characteristics. In this case, we see that these four pictures are of the same subject because the features are identical even though the pictures are different.

Perception Top-down processing: perceiving based on the content and the patterns you expect to occur in that situation. You probably don’t have any sense of the patterns expected in Chinese writing (different types of strokes as well as the stylistic features of calligraphy—one individual’s handwriting) and therefore cannot process this image top-down, but a person who can read Chinese fluently does and would use top-down processing. Every word in Chinese has a different sign (ideogram); to be minimally literate in Chinese, you have to be able to differentiate between and read 1500 ideograms. A person who can read Chinese would use top-down processing to help the recognition of these ideograms.

Perception Attention: focus on a stimulus.
If you don’t pay attention to something, you will not perceive it. This is why editing your own writing is so difficult—Gestalt theory says that you will see the whole even if the whole is not really there. You’ll miss the missing words and therefore not pay attention to what is really on the page.

Perception Automaticity: the ability to perform thoroughly learned tasks without much mental effort When you first start to play a violin, you have to pay attention to everything—how to hold the bow, how to move the bow, how to hold the left hand, how to move the fingers of the left hand, where the instrument is in relation to the shoulder, how to keep the instrument from sliding, etc. Eventually you develop automaticity with all those skills and can play without having to think about so much.

Working memory is the store that holds information as a person processes it. It is conscious and deliberate. Working Memory Computers have two types of memory: Random Access Memory (RAM) and the hard disk. RAM is the computer’s working memory—it determines how many programs you can have open at once and how fast your programs load and run. Your hard disk holds all your files for long term use and is much larger than your RAM. Your brain’s working memory is like RAM. It can hold a small amount of stuff and can be overloaded. As a teacher, you have to watch for signs of overload from your students. When their working memory is overloaded, they will not learn. Cognitive Load Theory: recognizes the limitations of working memory and emphasizes instruction that can accommodate its capacity

Short-term memory Component of memory system that holds information for about 20 seconds. Part of working memory.

Working memory: three parts
Central executive: the part of working memory that is responsible for monitoring and directing attention and other mental resources. Phonological loop: part of working memory. A memory rehearsal system for verbal and sound information of about seconds. Visuospatial sketchpad: part of working memory. A holding system for visual and spatial information. The working memory holds about 20 seconds’ worth of material.

Working memory: retaining information
Maintenance rehearsal: keeping information in working memory by repeating it to yourself. Elaborative rehearsal: keeping information in working memory by associating it with something else you already knew Chunking: grouping individual bits of information into meaningful larger units.

Maintenance rehearsal
The number is The number is The number is…

Elaborative rehearsal
The number is My nephew is 5 and my niece is 12.

That’s one nephew and two nieces.
Chunking The number is My nephew is 5 and my niece is 12. That’s one nephew and two nieces. Telephone numbers are 7 digits. By remembering 1 nephew and 2 nieces, that reduces the load to 3 items instead of 7.

Forgetting We lose memory through interference (remembering other things) and through decay (the weakening and fading of memories with the passage of time).

Working memory in the classroom
Tasks that are difficult require a lot of working memory, the way large programs on your computer use a lot of RAM. In school we often ask students to do two tasks at a time: to read AND to learn the material being read, to write AND to be able to represent knowledge through that writing. If a student is an able reader and writer, this is no problem. If a student struggles with any aspect of reading and writing, the other task (the learning or the representation of knowledge) will suffer because too much of the student’s working memory is being devoted to reading and writing. In this situation, if you want the student to learn, it is better to separate the tasks. Have the student listen to the text instead of reading or have the student dictate a text instead of writing.

Working memory: strategies for maximizing it
Chunking is the process of mentally combining separate items into larger, more meaningful units. Chunking: When you send a file through the internet, you use a program that compresses the information to a more manageable size. Your brain does this with information in working memory by “chunking” or putting several bits of information together so that only one total thing has to be remembered. In order to do this, look for patterns. For instance, if you hear E, G, B, your mind should chunk this into an e minor chord. If you hear seven digits, you can chunk them into a group of three and a group of four, like a telephone number.

Working memory: strategies
Automaticity: the use of mental operations that can be performed with little awareness or conscious effort. There are computer programs called “macros” which allow you to accomplish a task with fewer keystrokes. Your brain does this through practice: eventually a task takes little conscious effort. When you first drive a car, everything takes a huge amount of thinking. With practice, most driving procedures become automatic.

Working memory: strategies
Dual processing: the way two parts, a visual and an auditory component, work together in working memory. Some computers can do two things at once. So can your brain. When information comes in two channels (e.g., your eyes, your ears, your fingers, etc.), your brain uses information from both sources to enhance working memory. This is why it is better to give students information in BOTH visual and auditory forms.

Long term working memory: holds the strategies for pulling information from long-term memory into working memory. Long term memory Our permanent information store… Long term memory is like the hard drive on your computer. It holds both files and programs. Likewise, there are three types of long term memory: declarative knowledge, which is knowledge of facts, rules, etc. and which is like the word processing files on your hard disk, procedural knowledge, which is how to accomplish something and which is like the programs you have on your hard disk (word processor, games, etc.), and conditional knowledge, which is knowledge about when and why to use declarative or procedural knowledge..

In other words… Our long term memory has information on stuff, how to do stuff, and under which conditions we are going to use which type of knowledge. Isn’t this amazing????

Long term memory & Ed Psych
This chart assumes that some aspects of Ed Psych are general knowledge… Long term memory & Ed Psych General knowledge Domain-specific knowledge Declarative Human beings have memories Human beings begin life as babies and mature into adults Long term memory contains 3 types of knowledge Piaget outlines cognitive development which explains a lot about how young children think. Procedural If I want someone to repeat an action, I can praise that person for that action. I need to avoid overloading students’ working memories when I am teaching. Conditional When to approach a person who is having a problem and when to let that person alone. When to use behavioral procedures When to use a psychosocial understanding of development vs. understanding moral development.

Long term memory: contents
Knowledge that is both verbal and visual is easiest to learn, hence these power points. Long term memory: contents Words… and Images Explicit memory: long-term memories that involve deliberate or conscious recall. Implicit memory: knowledge that we are not conscious of recalling but influences our behavior or thought without our awareness.

Long term memory Semantic memory: memory for meaning
Episodic memory: long-term memory for information tied to a particular time and place, especially memory of the events in a person’s life. Flashbulb memory: clear vivid memories of emotionally important events in your life.

Long term memory: semantic memory
Things can make meaning in several ways: Propositions and propositional networks Images Schemas

Propositions This is the smallest unit of factual meaning—that can be judged as true or false. Propositional network: set of interconnected concepts and relationships in which long-term knowledge is held.

Images Representations based on the physical attributes—the appearance—of information.

Schema Organized networks of information.
On the computer, you organize your data in files. You might have a folder for each class you are taking with word processing documents for those classes inside. Your brain organizes declarative knowledge by schema. You have schema for everything you do, from driving a car to reading for college, from playing a musical instrument to eating with a fork vs. eating with chopsticks. The material in Piaget in Chapter Two mentions “schemes” which are understandings of the world. They are altered when the child encounters something that doesn’t fit within the schemes (accommodation and assimilation). Story grammar: schema representations for texts and stories. Scripts: schema representations for events.

Schema A schema is how you understand a concept. Prior to Galileo, astronomers thought that the sun circled the earth. They interpreted the stars’ movements in relation to their schema, their understanding. With the invention of the telescope, Galileo and others found that the earth actually circles the sun, so the basic schema changed. This illustrates that when students have a schema that is false, they misunderstand other information that depends on that basic concept.

Schema How schemas influence learning
Provide scaffolding that enable us to assimilate knowledge Facilitate summarizing Schemata help organize our learning. When it is organized, we can summarize it well. This is the Piagetian idea of maintaining equilibrium. Influence attention allocation When we have a schema about something, we can make good guesses about it. Stimulate inference making Schemata tell us which part of the information is important

Schemas How schemas influence learning
Provide scaffolding that enable us to assimilate knowledge Facilitate summarizing Our driving a car schema helps us to teach another person how to drive—what is important, what is not important, etc. You can use what you know from driving automatic shift and apply to standard (e.g., how much acceleration between gears) Influence attention allocation When you are on the highway and all the cars slow down in front of you, you can infer that there is either a problem ahead or a police officer. Stimulate inference making For example: Driving a car It’s important to pay attention to what you see on the road. It’s less important to pay attention to the radio.

Schemas Not only do you need to know what your students’ schemas are, but you also need to show how the new concept you are teaching fits into knowledge (schemas) students already have. Behaviorism taught us to teach in parts and later put them into wholes. But students need to have a sense of the whole (schema) so they can make sense of the part that you are teaching.

Episodic memory Long-term memory of information tied to a particular time and place, especially memory of the events in a person’s life.

Flashbulb memory Most of us have vivid memories of where we were on September 11, 2001. Every generation has some kind of flashbulb memory: people over fifty remember the assassination of John F. Kennedy. People in their thirties and forties remember the Challenger accident. Now, we have 9-11.

This is stuff in long-term memory that you may not be aware of.
Implicit memories Classical conditioning—the association of a strong feeling with something because of experience. Part of long term memory. Procedural memory—long term memory for how to do things. Productions—the contents of procedural memory; rules about what actions to take, given certain conditions. Priming effects—activating a concept in memory or the spread of activation from one concept to another.

Storing and retrieving information in long-term memory
Elaboration Organization Context

Elaboration Adding and extending meaning by connecting new information to existing knowledge. How easy would it be to memorize the following concepts without some kind of elaboration? (and yet, how often do we ask students to learn something with no connection to what they already know?) Synecdoche is a type of metaphor in which the part stands for the whole, the whole for a part, the genus for the species, the species for the genus, the material for the thing made, or in short, any portion, section, or main quality for the whole or the thing itself (or vice versa). Eponym substitutes for a particular attribute the name of a famous person recognized for that attribute. Anaphora is the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly in conjunction with climax and with parallelism

Organization Ordered and logical network of relations.
In other words, it’s a lot easier to learn something that is presented in an orderly, logical way than to try and learn something where facts seem to be presented completely randomly.

Context The physical or emotional backdrop associated with an event.
Years from now, as you remember Educational Psychology concepts, you may find yourself remembering the room you were studying in or this classroom.

Levels of Processing The more deeply processed something is, the better it stays in long-term memory. Memorizing a learning theory is shallow processing. Figuring out how to apply a learning theory in your classroom represents deeper processing. This is related to elaboration. Levels of processing: a view of learning suggesting that the more deeply information is processed, the more meaningful it becomes.

Retrieving information
Have you ever used the search function on your computer to try to find a file you know is SOMEWHERE? Retrieving information from your long term memory involves a similar search… Retrieval: process of searching for and finding information in long-term memory.

Spreading activation Retrieval of pieces of information based on their relatedness to one another. Remembering one bit of information activates (stimulates) recall of associated information. If you have ever figured out a second exam question from having answered a first exam question, then you have experienced this—working on one thing leads you to remember related information.

Reconstruction Recreating information by using memories, expectations, logic, and existing knowledge. Sometimes reconstructed memories are not accurate, as studies have shown. (However, this is also a good strategy for test-taking—seeing if you can reconstruct information you have forgotten, based on what you know and logic).

Forgetting ??????? The loss of, or inability to retrieve, information from memory.

Forgetting as Interference
The loss of information because something learned before or after detracts from understanding—something interferes with remembering.

Forgetting as Retrieval Failure
Retrieval—pulling information from long-term memory into working memory for further processing. Forgetting as Retrieval Failure When your computer won’t retrieve a file or a program that you KNOW should be on your hard drive (or CD), that is like what happens to your brain. The information is there but you can’t get to it. It won’t go from long term memory to working memory. If you have had the feeling that a word was on the tip of your tongue but you can’t remember it, then you know how this feels. With computers, we back up the information on CD’s and other disk drives so it is available. In our brains, we try to make the information as meaningful as possible (with lots of connections to other things we know) so that we can retrieve it.

Developing procedural knowledge
Declarative stage: students have knowledge ABOUT the procedure—they know what they are supposed to do but they don’t have experience. Associative stage: students can perform the task, but only with a lot of thinking about it. Automatic stage: students can perform the process without thinking about it.

Developing Procedural Knowledge
Can you think of an example of your own learning in relation to this idea? Developing Procedural Knowledge Three Stages: Declarative stage. The banjo has five strings, you use finger picks on the right hand to make a sound. The sequence of fingers on the right hand creates the banjo roll, e.g., index then middle then thumb is a forward roll. I know all this but it takes a great effort for me to play. Associative stage. I can play Cripple Creek very slowly with the printed music in front of me. As I move through this stage, I start learning the music by heart and I pick up speed. Any outside interruption will mess me up (e.g., someone playing guitar or trying to talk with me). Automatic stage. I can play Cripple Creek without thinking about it. I can play a forward roll without thinking about it. I can play with a guitar player and I can play the song even if someone tries to distract me. To get from here to here takes PRACTICE!!!! Lots of it!!! This is true of math and anything else!!!

Implications You need to be aware of where your students are in the process of developing procedural knowledge. For example, in using the keyboard on a computer, you will have students in all three stages. For students in the declarative or associative stages, the keyboard takes a lot of thought to use, so they will not be as fluent in their writing. You can imagine that when a student is “hunting and pecking,” they are more likely to choose short words and sentences because the process of typing is so difficult. Students in the automatic stage will be able to use the keyboard with ease and it will not get in the way of them expressing themselves.

Implications Further, when you are teaching procedural knowledge, you need to create opportunities for students to practice their skills regularly. This might be time in class on a regular basis or it might be homework.

Cognitive Processes Attention Perception Rehearsal Encoding Retrieval
What do you think these processes might be? In other words, I’m asking you to activate your schema about thinking prior to reading this part of the book.

Attention The process of consciously focusing on a stimulus.
As a teacher, you will want your students to focus on what you are doing. If you are boring, they won’t. The younger they are, the more annoying to you will be their choice of activity when they are not focusing on you. Older students might doze or whisper to each other. Younger students might get up and move around the room.

How to get their attention
Demonstrations Discrepant events (surprises) Charts Pictures Problems Thought-provoking questions Emphasis Using their names In your experience, what techniques have teachers used to get student attention?

Perception The process used to attach meaning to stimuli.
The meaning making process is where things can fall apart. Students with no background in a subject will not be able to attach meaning to something. If I give you a graduate school text in a subject that you have not studied, you will probably attach very little meaning to the words in the text.

Rehearsal A process of repeating information over and over, either aloud or mentally, without altering its form. For example, when you want to dial a number you just looked up, you might repeat it in your mind several times as you reach for the phone. But, the number is only in your working memory—it may or may not transfer to your longterm memory.

Encoding The process of representing information in long-term memory (back to the computer analogy—saving your work to your hard drive).

Encoding: Meaningfulness
Meaningfulness describes the number of connections or links between an idea and other ideas. Three things contribute to meaningfulness: Organization—the process of clustering related items of content into categories or patterns that illustrate relationships. Elaboration—the process of increasing the meaningfulness of information by forming additional links in existing knowledge or adding new knowledge. Activity—having students get involved in what they are doing (hands on).

Dual-Coding Theory Word
Dual-coding theory suggests that long-term memory contains two distinct memory systems: one for verbal information and one that stores images. Dual-Coding Theory Our brains have one system for processing WORDS and another for IMAGES. There are interconnections between these systems. Some information works better if it has an image aspect to it such as a chart. Word One idea behind these reading guides is to convert some of the words in your text into images so you can remember it better. Imagery: the process of forming mental pictures.

Elaboration Provide examples
Form analogies (relationships that are similar in some but not all respects) Use mnemonic devices which link knowledge to be learned to familiar information.

Mnemonics: techniques for remembering; also the art of memory
Loci-method: technique of associating items with specific places. Peg-type mnemonics: systems of associating items with cue words. Acronym: technique for remembering names, phrases, or steps by using the first letter of each word to form a new, memorable word. Chain mnemonics: memory strategies that associate one element in a series with the next element. Keyword method: system of associating new words or concepts with similar-sounding cue words and images.

Examples of mnemonics Big Elephants Always Die Gracefully Crawling Forward (BEADGCF, order of the flats) Don’t Play Lousy Music At Inter-Lochen (Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Ionian, Lochrian, the modes) George Eats Old Grey Rats And Paints Houses Yellow (GEOGRAPHY) Mother Always Takes Her Enemies Mush And Turnips In Cole Slaw (MATHEMATICS) My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles (the planets) The only problem is: how can you remember how to spell “mnemonic”?

Rote memorization Remembering information by repetition without necessarily understanding the meaning of the information. Serial-position effect: the tendency to remember the beginning and the end but not the middle of a list. Part learning: breaking a list of rote learning items into shorter lists.

Rote memorization To a person who struggles with learning, a large “thing” to memorize, whether a poem or the times tables, is overwhelming. Help students break the task down into manageable parts. Do a lot of follow through so that students learn an important lesson: large things are accomplished by doing a small part each day.

Practice Distributed practice: practice in brief periods with rest intervals. Massed practice: practice for a single extended period. Massed practice is essentially cramming. Distributed practice is more likely to result in success, however, it takes some maturity to be able to do a little bit each day. Help your students to learn this important lesson.

Activity The more active you are in learning, the more material you will encode in your long term memory. Just scanning through a text while watching television is not being active. Doing worksheets is probably not being very active in learning. Think about how you can be active in your learning and how you can help students to be active in their learning.

Awareness and control over one’s own cognitive processes.
Metacognition This means thinking about thinking. If you know about how your own thinking works, then you can make good choices about how you learn. We teach metacognitive strategies in the classroom so that students can become independent, effective, lifelong learners.

Meta-attention These are the strategies you use to help you to pay attention. Although you may not have been formally taught these strategies, you might find that teaching attention strategies to your students will help them to be better learners.

Meta-memory Knowledge and control over our memory strategies.
These are the strategies you use in order remember information. Students need to be taught ways to remember things. It’s a good idea to give students several different ways to remember things (visual strategies and organizations of information as well as linguistic strategies and organizations).

Developing metacognition
Use strategies—plans for accomplishing specific learning goals Meta-attention strategies—help children to LEARN to pay attention. Directly teach these skills. Metamemory strategies—don’t just ask students to memorize something. Find out what they know about HOW to memorize and help them add to their strategic choices.

Diversity Each person’s cognition is different because people bring different experiences to learning. You need to make sure that everyone ends up “on the same page” even if they didn’t start there.

Schema Production You help students to integrate the new with the old and to put the material into longterm memory. Integration Information Aquisition Comprehension Monitoring You teach a lesson. Make sure it’s not so long that it overwhelms students’ working memory. You check on how students understand what you have taught—you assess their schema development.

Advance Organizer Input (typing on keyboard) User Computer: RAM
Hard disk This slide was an advance organizer. It’s purpose was to help you to organize the information you were going to receive about how the brain learns. Advance organizers help students to develop workable schemata.

Understanding & Automaticity: Acquiring Procedural Knowledge
Introduce and review Get kids to pay attention. Check their schemas. Develop understanding They need to connect procedural knowledge with declarative knowledge. Practice With teacher help during associative stage, and then by themselves to achieve automaticity. Automated basic skills: skills that are applied without conscious thought. Domain-specific strategies: consciously applied skills to reach goals in a particular subject or problem area.

Homework and Practicing
Extension of class work High level of success Expected part of class Students are accountable Doing a little each night is better than a lot once a week Helps to develop automaticity Classroom teachers know that homework can help students learn. Musicians and athletes know that regular practice can lead to big gains. Classroom teachers may want to quiz musicians and athletes on practice techniques and music and physical education teachers may want to consider some of the above advantages and considerations to encouraging practice at home.

Assessment We use assessment to figure out if how we are teaching is working with our students. Be sure there is instructional alignment: the match between goals, learning activities, and assessment. Otherwise, you don’t know if what you are doing is working.

Diversity Development: people develop at different times, so some students’ ability to use working memory will be more mature than that of other students the same age. Individual differences: people are different in terms of their working memory spans. People’s background knowledge makes a large difference in their learning. If they have a lot of background knowledge related to school subjects, they will learn those school subjects more easily. If they don’t, then you as a teacher may need to provide opportunities for students to develop that background knowledge.

Vocabulary Strategies Top-down processing Visuospatial sketchpad
Working memory Vocabulary Acronym Chunking Distributed practice Episodic memory Inform-ation process-ing Long-term memory Model Productions Schemas Analogies Cognitive learning theories Domain- specific knowledge Explicit memory Information stores Long-term working memory Part learning Propositional network Scripts Attention Cognitive load theory Domain- specific strategies Flashbulb memory Instructional alignment Maintenance rehearsal Perception Prototype Sensory memory Automated basic skills Cognitive pro-cesses Dual-coding theory Forgetting Interference Massed practice Peg-type mnemonics Organization Semantic memory Automaticity Conditional know-ledge Dual processing General knowledge Keyword method Mnemonic devices Phonological loop Recon- struction Serial Position Effect Bottom-up processing Context Elaboration Gestalt Learning Mnemonics Priming Rehearsal Short-term memory Central executive Decay Elaborative rehearsal Imagery Levels of pro-cessing Meaning-fulness Procedural knowledge Retrieval Spreading activation Chain mnemonics Declar-ative know-ledge Encoding Implicit memory Loci method Meta- memory Procedural memory Rote memorization Story grammar

Cognitive Learning Theory

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