Transcript Learning and Cognition

Learning and Cognition
 Cognitive Information Processing
 Schema Theory
Behaviorists
 Not much interested in how people “think”
mentally
 Primarily concerned with observable
behavior, I.e., what happens before and
after learning
 In this sense, behavioral instruction (direct
instruction, programmed learning, etc.) is
mostly concerned with what the teacher
does
Cognitivists
 Concerned with mental processes
 How people acquire, process, and use
information
 Pay attention to what goes on at the very
moment of learning, not just the results of
learning
Cognitive Theorists
 Jerome Bruner
• Spiral curriculum
– revisit at different
stages
Cognitive Theorists
 Jean Piaget
• developmental stages
• learning structured by
– schemes (templates)
– assimilation (adding on)
– accommodation (changing schemes)
Cognitive Theorists
 Both Bruner and Piaget, as well as their
successors, hold that:
• children are different than adults
• children’s thinking/learning develops
• children’s learning development not
necessarily equivalent to physical age or
maturation: experiences and social
interactions play vital roles
Cognitive Theorists
 Lev Vygotsky
• learning first occurs on the inter-personal
plane via interaction with others
– such intra-personal processes as thinking, reflecting, reasoning and
problem-solving occur through cooperation and interaction with
others in some cultural-social framework
• Zone of proximal development (ZPD)
– boundary of student’s prior knowledge and that for which he or she is
not yet developmentally ready but can be assisted by others to get
there; the area between what a learner can do independently
(mastery level) and what can be accomplished with assistance of a
competent adult or peer (instructional level); scaffolding assists in
getting from one place to the other
Cognitive Information
Processing
 Computer model
• compares basic biochemical workings of the
brain with basic computer design
• people, like computers, input information, code
and store it for short and long-term retrieval,
process and manipulate it internally, and
produce outputs
CIP Stages
Sensory Memory
 holds information very briefly (e.g., striking
match in dark room)
 separate sensory memory for each of the
five senses
Short-term or Working Memory
 further processing carried out here to
make information ready for long-term
storage or a response
 information is coded conceptually and
takes on meaning
 can handle only a limited amount of
information (thought to be 7 bits or chunks,
plus or minus 2) for a limited amount of
time
Short-term or Working Memory
 working
memory can be increased through
creating larger bits (process of chunking)
 as new chunks come into memory, they
push out those previously occupying the
available spaces
 unrehearsed information will be lost from
working memory in about 15-30 seconds
From working memory to longterm memory
 Rehearsal (repetition), e.g., remembering a
phone number you just looked up
 Encoding: fitting the information into fabric
of what you already know
– outlines, hierarchies, concept trees, mnemonics,
self-questioning
Long-term Memory
 permanent storehouse/hard drive
 unlimited capacity
 though some “files” may seem to be
“erased” (forgetfulness), information in
long-term memory is never truly lost
unless there is a physical/biological
malady
Long-term Memory
 episodic memory (specific events)
 semantic memory (general information);
this is the memory that most concerns
educators
Long-term Memory
 how information is represented and stored
in semantic memory
• network models of LTM (mental dictionary;
interconnected hierarchies; problem is
typicality: e.g. canary more easily recognized
as a bird than penguin)
• feature comparison models (concepts stored
with sets of defining as well as characteristic
features)
Long-term Memory
• propositional models of LTM (concepts stored
as propositions, e.g. “a bird has wings”)
• parallel distributed processing (PDP) models
of LTM (interlinked frisbee metaphor;
connections are the building blocks of
memory)
CIP
 Selective attention
• learners can select and process certain
information while simultaneously ignoring
other information
• abililty to control attention varies with age,
hyperactivity, intelligence, and learning
disabilities
• instructional strategy: get their attention!
CIP
 Automaticity
• occurs when information and/or tasks are
overlearned, become habitual, e.g. driving
• desirable to develop some automatic decoding
skills among learners, e.g., learning to read,
basic arithmetic operations, etc.
CIP
 Pattern Recognition and Perception
• Attention is necessary but not sufficient for
learning
• Information must also be analyzed and already
familiar patterns or templates identified to
give a basis for further information processing
• Pattern recognition refers to the process
where stimuli from the environment are
recognized as exemplars of concepts already
in memory
CIP
 Models of Pattern Recognition
• Template matching (exact mental models
already stored in memory) --not widely
endorsed
• Prototype Model (what is already stored is not
an exact copy of a stimulus but a general
prototype)
• Feature Analysis (features only stored in
memory)
CIP
 Whatever has been learned or experienced
previously will have some impact on what
is perceived in later situations
 Stroop effect: knowing what you think is
“right” interferes sometimes with
processing something new; e.g.,
proofreading, we see what we think should
be rather than what is
Retrieval of Learned Information
 Recall (with no cues)
 Recognition (cues or pregenerated stimuli)
 Encoding Specificity:
whatever cues are
used by a learner to facilitate encoding will
also serve as the best retrieval cues
Metacognition
 self-awareness and self-regulation of
thinking, e.g.
• knowing what one doesn’t know, predicting one’s performance, planning
and apportioning cognitive resources and time; checking and monitoring
 students must have a base of prior
knowledge
 students must know when and why various
self-regulatory strategies may be
effectively employed
Schema Theory: Ausubel
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Ausubel's theory is concerned with how individuals learn
large amounts of meaningful material from verbal/textual
presentations in a school setting (in contrast to theories
developed in the context of laboratory experiments).
He is concerned with meaningful reception of information
rather than information processing per se.
According to Ausubel, learning is based upon the kinds of
superordinate, representational, and combinatorial
processes that occur during the reception of information.
Schema Theory: Ausubel
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A primary process in learning is subsumption in which
new material is related to relevant ideas in the existing
cognitive structure on a substantive, non-verbatim basis.
Cognitive structures represent the residue of all learning
experiences; forgetting occurs because certain details get
integrated and lose their individual identity.
Schema Theory: Ausubel
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A major instructional mechanism proposed by Ausubel is
the use of advance organizers:
"These organizers are introduced in advance of learning
itself, and are also presented at a higher level of
abstraction, generality, and inclusiveness; and since the
substantive content of a given organizer or series of
organizers is selected on the basis of its suitability for
explaining, integrating, and interrelating the material they
precede, this strategy simultaneously satisfies the
substantive as well as the programming criteria for
enhancing the organization strength of cognitive structure."
(1963 , p. 81).
Schema Theory: Ausubel
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Ausubel emphasizes that advance organizers are different
from overviews and summaries. Organizers act as a
subsuming bridge between new learning material and
existing related ideas.
Ausubel clearly indicates that his theory applies only to
reception (expository) learning in school settings. He
distinguishes reception learning from rote and discovery
learning; the former because it doesn't involve
subsumption (i.e., meaningful materials) and the latter
because the learner must discover information through
problem solving.
Schema Theory: Ausubel
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Instructional Application:
1. The most general ideas of a subject should be presented
first and then progressively differentiated in terms of detail
and specificity.
2. Instructional materials should attempt to integrate new
material with previously presented information through
comparisons and cross-referencing of new and old ideas.
Schema Theory
 A schema is “a data structure for
representing the generic concepts store in
memory” (Rumelhart, 34).
 Schemata are packets of knowledge and
schema theory is a theory of how these
packets are represented in particular
ways.
Discussion & Task
 In groups of three:
• Select a concept or theme or skill commonly
taught in some context (elementary, jr high,
high school; language, math, music, social
studies, whatever)
• Assume Suzy and Matt are having difficulties
learning it
• Analyze the situation from the standpoint of a
schema theorist