COGNITIVE THEORIES OF LEARNING Introduction Meaning of Cognition Information Processing Approach

Introduction Cognitive psychology re-emerged in 1960s. By then, Cognitive learning theories started to dominate ideas about learning and criticized behavioral learning theories.

What is cognition? Cognition, according to Hamilton, I (1995:20) in the Dictionary of Cognitive Psychology is ‘the understanding, acquisition and processing knowledge, or more loosely thought processes’. Cognitive learning theories deal with the way human being acquires and understands knowledge through thinking. All explanation about how human being acquires and understands knowledge through thinking.

Information Processing Approach Information processing approach is the first serious movement of cognitive psychology. It is concerned with how: human being acquires, processes, retains and retrieves information. people remember and forget information. Psychologists work on different aspects in this approach. For example, Siegler worked on attention in memory formation and Flavell worked on expansion of memory capabilities (Passer and Smith;2001:467).

Related to learning, it studies how the learner receives information from the environment and uses it in the learning process. Understanding how students acquire, process, retain and retrieve information will enable the teacher to help learners learn effectively. Remembering is an important condition for learning. If learners remember what they learn, their learning will be incapacitated.

Concept of ‘Memory’ and its storage systems Memory: keeping facts or experiences in mind and be able to retrieve it when needed. Three types of memory storage systems; sensory memory; short term memory; and long term memory.

MEMORY SYSTEMS SENSORY MEMORY Temporary and brief storage Large amount of information Short time stay Senses of hearing, touching, smelling, tasting and vision Attention and recognition needed Fading occurs when no attention SHORT TERM MEMORY Information registered, attended and recognized enters in the STM Holds current information Short time stay Rehearsal needed (maintanance and elaborative rehearsal) LONG TERM MEMORY Large capacity store Long time stay Most information used is retrieved from LTM Information can not be lost Retrieval for STM

Promoting sensory registration The teacher must: avoid giving too much information; pause at every stage or step; make learners aware of the important information; help learners use as many sense organs as possible.

Promoting sensory memory Teachers should: present little information; involve short time activities (opportunity to rehearse) organize and link well the information with other materials to be learnt and previous information.

LTM has very large capacity to store. Long Term Memory Information held in Short Term Memory is transferred in to Long Term Memory. LTM has very large capacity to store. Information in LTM is retained for a long time and will never be forgotten. Failure to retrieve it may be due to some factors.

Types of memory Episodic, Semantic and Procedural. Episodic memory/images: pictorial representations of information like images of personal experiences or events; what one did or saw. Semantic memory: stores facts and general knowledge; concepts, principles, learning strategies or problem solving skills. Procedural memory: stores information of how to do things or how to perform intellectual tasks; how to operate a computer or to build a house.

Forgetting: Failure to retain information in the long term memory or unable to retrieve already available information. Why do we forget? Forgetting is caused by: Information interference; mixed up of information, information is pushed aside or inhibited. This happens when two pieces of information appear to be similar or too much a like and there were no cues to differentiate them. One is lost or confused with another because of lack of sufficient learning.

The interval is too short One information has not been well comprehended Two types of interference/inhibition: Retroactive inhibition Proactive inhibition Proactive inhibition: failure to learn new information because is interfered by previously learned information. Retroactive inhibition: failure to recall previously learned information due to learning new information.

Emotional state on a material, process, teacher or when doing an action affect remembering, example fear, hate, sadness disappointment or lack of interest. Fatigue; it is difficult to retrieve or retain information. It affects the work of sense organs, attention and concentration. Unorganized information; Organization facilitates the work of the schema. Information which is not interrelated or is in illogical sequence is hard to organize in a mental schema.

No rehearsal: large amount of information, noise some emotions or lack of chance to rehearse. Encoding failure: the information has never been encoded so it has not been transferred neither to STM nor to LTM. Motivated forgetting: bad, traumatic, shameful information are intentionally repressed as they bring out bad feelings. Memory Strategies Engagement in meaningful practices and using variety of visual aids assist in using many sense organs in learning.

Good organization and presentation of material. Interrelation of facts and ideas can be captured easily and so makes mental schema to work more effectively. Frequent revision and practice; Mass learning: Practice newly learned information intensely until it is thoroughly learned. Distributed practice: Spread several shorter sessions over a few days and guide students to practice a little each day through home work or class work. This leads to better retention.

Part learning: Breaking the long list of items into smaller list. Encourage learners to learn part of a thing separately. Over-learning: Continuous practice of the learned material beyond the point of recall or initial learning. This help long term retention Teaching by association; using examples, real objects, illustrations, pictures or models. Association provides memory cues. One thing stimulates remembering of another. Motivation: promotes interest and feelings of need and meaningfulness of a material.

This will reinforce attention, concentration and rehearsal. Give an outline in the beginning of the lesson and summary at the end due to primary and recent effects of information. Primary information draws more attention to the learner while recent information is not affected by intervening information. Using elaborative rehearsal This helps in deeper information processing. Ask the students the meaning of a concepts at every step.

The use of mnemonics: these are cues that aid memory The use of mnemonics: these are cues that aid memory. They are used to form mental images to help remember associations. Types of mnemonics: Yodai mnemonic; each word in a piece of information to be remembered is given another more familiar name. Peg word method: List of facts is linked with images; two- shoe, three- tree, four-door, Initial letter strategies: make acronyms like BODMAS.

References Elliot et al (2000): Educational Psychology: Effective Teaching, Effective Learning: Boston: McGraw Hill. Hamilton, I (1995) Dictionary of Cognitive Psychology. Methuen Passer, M & Smith, R (2001):Psychology: Frontiers and Application. Boston: McGraw Hill. Slavin, R (1988): Educational Psychology: Theory into Practice. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall. Snowman, J. McCown & R. Biehler, R (2009): Psychology Applied to Teaching (12th edition). Belmont: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.