Cognitive Theories of Learning

Cognitivism

·       Cognitivism can be defined as the general approach that views learning as an active mental process of acquiring, remembering and using knowledge.

Difference between cognitivism and behaviourism

·       Cognitive psychologists try to understand the process involved and how they operate.  They argue that in order to understand the behavioiur of an individual, the internal events that happen within the individual must be studied.

·       Behaviourist believes that learning is just a change of behaviour.  Accoding to them, behaviourism does not really explain how the mind operate and people attempt to organize and make sense of the information they learn.

Differences between behaviourists and cognitive theories

Behavioiurism	Cognitivism
Individual act on stimulation	They act on consideration
Change in behaviour based on specific actions	An internal mental process based on mental process
Teacher’s role is to arrange the environment to elicit the desired response	Teacher’s role is to structure the content of a learning activity
Locus of learning is the stimuli in the external environment	Locus of learning is the internal cognitive structuring
Purpose of education is to produce behavioural change in a desired direction	Purpose of education is to develop capacity and skills to learn better

Gestalt theory – Wolfgand kohler, Kurt Koffka and Max Wertheime

·       Gestalt theory looks at a structure as a whole instead of dividing it into entities or separate parts.

·       In learning, Gestalt stress on the way the mind focus on pattern or the nature of something and how it influences learning process.

·       This theory states that a person’s perception regarding a particular stimulus will influence his reaction or actions.

·       This perception is influenced by experience, culture, upbringing and insights.

The rules of the Gestalt theory

1.     The rule of closure

Object grouped together are seen as a whole.  We human beings have a tendency to ignore gaps and complete contour lines.

2.     The rule of proximity

We human beings have a tendency of grouping things together to perceive information.

3.     The rule of foreground and background

It is possible to see any well-marked area of the visual field as the figure leaving the rest as the background.

Insight – Kohler

·       Insight means spontaneous and complete problem solving

·       People need time to think because they have to study factors related to the environment and link them to their past experiences.

Piaget’s theory of cognitive learning

Piaget believed that all children are born with the ability to interact with their environment and as they interact with it, they begin to make sense of their world.

Piaget suggested that learning takes place when new information is shaped to fit in with the learner’s existing knowledge and existing knowledge is modified to accommodate the new information.

Schemas:  Schemas are mental or cognitive structures which enable a person to adapt a d organize the environment.

Assimilation:  Assimilation is the cognitive process by which a person integrates new information or experience into existing or readily available schema. The process by which children mold new information to fit their existing schemas

Accommodation:  Accommodation is when a person creates a new schema or modifies and existing schema into which new information of experience can be placed. The process of changing existing schemata to fit new information

Equilibrium:  Equilibrium is a balance between assimilation and accommodation. 

Concepts related to cognitivism

·       “Pay attention”

-          Concept: Attention – how we filter or select important information from the environment

·       “I don’t know”

-          Concept: Knowledge – the store of general information and algorithms for performing taks

·       “I don’t remember”

-          Concept: Memory – a process for storing, retrieving and working with information

·       “I can’t decide”

-          Concept: Decision making – set of higher-level process that work together allow us function day to day.  

How to gain attention?

-          Let the students know that is important ( to do this you can use voice variation, body language, repetition etc.)

-          Increase emotional content

-          Unusual, inconsistent, surprising stimuli

-          Verbally say that this is important for tomorrow’s test

How do you hold information in your short term memory?

Rehearsal: The long you keep something in your working memory, the greater the chance it has to be transferred to the long term memory.

Information processing model

                                    
Short term memory (The working memory)

This is the place where

-          The mind operate on information

-          Organizes information for storage and disordering

-          Connects new information to old ones

Long term memory (Name, Past experiences, Feelings, Emotions)

1.     Episodic memory – A part of LTM that stores images of our personal experience

2.     Procedural memory – A part of LTM that stores information about how to do things

3.     Semantic memory – A part of LTM that stores facts and general knowledge

Flash bulb memory

A type of memory is the episodic memory in which important events are fixed mainly in visual or auditory memory.

Social learning theory – Albert Bandura

Social learning theory that emphasizes not only reinforcement but also the effects of cues on thought and of thought on action.

Bandura argued that children learned to act aggressively when they modelled their behaviour after violent act of adult.

Agression must be explained from three aspects.

1.     How aggressive patterns of behaviours are developed.

2.     What provokes people to behave aggressively?

3.     What determines whether they are going to continue to resort to an aggressive behaviour pattern in the future.

Processes of social learning

1.     Attention:  Individuals cannot learn much by observation unless they perceive and attend to the significant features of the modelled behaviour.

2.     Retention:  In order to reproduce the modelled behaviour, individuals must encode the information into long-term memory.

3.     Reproduction:  The observer must be able to reproduce the model’s behaviour.

4.     Motivation:  The observer expects to receive positive reinforcements for the modelled behaviour.

Observational learning

Learning by observation and imitation of others

Vicarious learning

Learning based on observation of the consequences of other’s behaviour.

Eg: when one student is fooling around, teachers often single out others who are working well and reinforce them for doing a good job.  The misbehaving student sees that working is reinforced and (it is hoped) gets back to work.

Self-regulated learning

Rewarding or punishing one’s own behaviour.

Eg: Children who are studying multiplication facts might be asked to time themselves on how quickly and accurately they can complete a 50 items facts test and then to try to beat their own record.