Lesson 3: Cognitive Views of Learning
Introduction

In this lesson we will move away from behavioral views of learning towards cognitive views of learning. Whereas behaviorists mainly look at observable behaviors of learners, cognitivists are more concerned with internal mental processes. Cognitivists are concerned with what happens in people’s minds, like the way we structure knowledge and the way our memory works. Please learn more about cognitive views of learning by studying the readings of this lesson and by taking the quiz and completing the reflection activities.

Instructor Notes

  General Principles
  • Assumption of a limited capacity (the amount of information that can be processed is constrained).
  • A control mechanism is required to oversee the encoding, transformation, processing, storage, retrieval and utilization of information.
  • There is a two-way flow of information as we try to make sense of the world around us.
  • The human organism has been genetically prepared to process and organize information.
Memory: A Stage Model
  • Sensory Memory: the initial processing that transforms these incoming stimuli into information so we can make sense of them (large capacity but short duration).
  • Short term memory: faculties of the human mind that can hold a limited amount of information in a very accessible state temporarily.
  • Working memory (sometimes used interchangeably with short term memory): the workbench. It is used to plan and carry out behavior. This includes both temporary and active processing. This is the whole theoretical framework of structures and processes and short-term memory is just one component.
  • Long term memory: holds the information that is well learned. A permanent store of knowledge that can be declarative, procedural, and self-regulatory. It is divided into episodic memory and semantic memory.

Readings

 

Understanding
Self-Assessment

After completing the reading and watching the video, please take the quiz below to assess your own learning and understanding of the main concepts and principles of cognitive views of learning.

Click here if you can't see the quiz below



 

Reflection
Reflection Activity 1

Please watch the following clip:


Did you notice all changes in the clip? How would you explain this from an information processing perspective (think about sensory memory, attention, limits of working memory and cognitive load)?

Reflection Activity 2

Please solve this problem and think about your process of solving it:

“The ITMA family has 3 kids. Tim, the oldest child, is three times older than Marilyn and Diana is 3 years older than Marilyn. The sum of their age is 28. What is the age of Diana?”

Think of how you solved this problem from an information processing perspective (think about the influence of sensory memory, attention, perception, working memory, the central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, the episodic buffer, and cognitive load).

Reflection Activity 3
You will need a partner for this activity.
Game 1: Show your friend one line of text at a time for 10-15 seconds (no more than 15 seconds for sure!). There are 15 pieces of information in each line. Right after each line has been presented, ask your friend to repeat as many pieces of information as s/he can remember in order. You write down exactly what your friend says and submit it.

1) 1, 8, 5, 4, 9, 2, 3, 6, 7, 0, 2, 5, 3, 9, 1
2) c, k, s, l, a, f, j, u, e, w, b, m, d, x, p
3) leaf, fence, stop, is, lamp, bird, street, tomato, the, open, walking, shirt, purple, cone, public
4) 0, 4, 8, 1, 2, 1, 6, 2, 0, 2, 4, 2, 8, 3, 2
5) g, r, e, e, k, d, i, c, t, i, o, n, a, r, y
6) look, the, shaggy, dog, is, running, across, grass, toward, woman, open, arms, with, green, frisbee

Now, using the data you collected from your friend, answer these questions:

  • About how many pieces of information was your friend able to remember from each of the first three lines? Do you see evidence of a limit to how much information working memory can hold?
  • Did your friend remember more pieces of information in the last three lines than the first three? Why do you suppose this is true? What things do teachers do that help us organize small bits of information into larger chunks?
  • In the first three lines, did your friend remember more information from the beginning and ending of the line than the middle? What is this phenomenon called and what implications does this have for creating lesson plans?

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Application
Assignment 3: Develop Power Point Video to Teach Cognitive Information Processing Theory to your students.
  1. Critique Existing Work: Think about a PowerPoint presentation you have experienced in a class or a video that you were asked to watch outside of your classes . Based on your recollections of what you observed, what are some things that you would do differently in order to teach the material based upon cognitive information processing theory? Using what you’ve learned about sensory memory, encoding, working memory, long term memory, procedural knowledge, etc., outline your selected PowerPoint or video and note where you see opportunities for improvement and what strategy you might use to improve it. Please be specific in the PowerPoint or video that you are critiquing. (4 points)
  2. Plan New Work: Reflect upon the principles covered in this lesson, including strategies like elaboration, mnemonics, organization, imagery, context (and others). Plan a new presentation to teach the same topic that you critiqued in question one, using information processing strategies to teach the same topic in a more meaningful way. Write a brief lesson plan or outline that you will be able to use to create your narrated PowerPoint. (3 points).
  3. Create New Work: Based on your plan, use the principles discussed above or in the lesson to create a narrated PowerPoint about your topic to engage students. If you do not know how to create a narrated PowerPoint, click here. Save your narrated PowerPoint as a video and upload it to YouTube or Vimeo. (4 points)
  4. Reflect Upon Your Work: In a brief reflection, explain how your PowerPoint is aligned with the principles associated with cognitive information processing theory. Highlight at least 5 principles from the theory that you’ve used in your application, defining the term and explaining how each of these principles has been applied in your lesson. (4 points).


Submitting Your Assignment
Please prepare Assignment 3 in Microsoft Word. At the top of your Word file, add the lesson name, your name, email address, and the date. When you save the document as a file on your computer, make sure the file is named “Assignment3”. After you have saved your file, go to the student interface and submit your assignment for grading. Click here if you need additional information regarding submission of your assignment.

If you have created two different files (Powerpoint and Word) you can follow the directions found here to compress or zip your files. Once you have done this you can submit the compressed folder to the Student interface.


Grading Criteria

 
  • Outlined a presentation or video and identified opportunities for improvement that align with cognitive views of learning (4)
  • Developed a theory-driven lesson plan or outline to create your narrated PowerPoint (3)
  • Using the developed lesson plan, created a narrated PowerPoint demonstrating principles related to cognitive views of learning. (4)
  • Composed a reflection defining and discussing how at least 5 of the principles used in the narrated PowerPoint align with cognitive views of learning. (4)

Points: 15