Lesson 4: Complex Cognitive Processes

Introduction

In lesson 3, you were introduced to cognitive views of learning. You learned how people process and remember information by combining the functions of their sensory memory, working memory, and long term memory. In this lesson, you will investigate how people can learn more complex cognitive processes, such as metacognition, problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, and argumentation.

Instructor Notes

  • Metacognition is one’s awareness of thinking and the self-regulatory behavior that accompanies this awareness. There are variables that impact metacognition including person, task, and strategy variables.
    • Involves knowledge and control of self
    • Knowledge and control of process
    • Successful learning and transfer of knowledge is dependent on the students’ ability to effectively control and monitor their learning
  • Creativity is the use of the imagination or original ideas especially in the production of an artistic work. It is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. It can be characterized by the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate solutions.
    • Convergent thinking: the combining of information into a single idea or product.
    • Divergent thinking: the process of generating many different but related ideas for a given topic or solution to a problem.
  • Transfer of knowledge is a phenomenon in which something a person has learned at one time affects how the person learn or performs in a later situation.
    • Types of transfer: positive, negative, specific, and general
    • Factors impacting transfer include the meaningfulness of the original learning, how similar the new material is to the original learning, the type of material (theories are more easily transferred than discrete facts), the relevance of learning, and the cultural environment and expectations.
  • Problem Solving is any situation in which you are trying to reach some goal and must find a way to do so. One creates new solutions for the problems.
    • Algorithm is a step-by step prescription for achieving a goal.
    • Heuristic is a general strategy used in attempting to solve problems.
    • Examples are means-end analysis, working backwards strategy, analogical thinking, and verbalization.

Readings

 

Understanding

Please take the quiz below to assess your own learning and understanding of the main concepts and principles of complex cognitive processes.

Click here when you can't see the quiz below



 


Reflection

Please go to the website of Virginia Tech’s Cook Counseling Center to assess your own study skills.

  1. Which study area is your biggest weakness?
  2. Which learning strategies could you apply to overcome this weakness?
  3. When preparing for the next lesson in this course (lesson 5), try to apply at least two or three new learning strategies that you read about in this chapter and evaluate if they helped you learn and apply the readings better.

 

Application
Assignment 4: Too late?

Tom is a stressed ITMA student. Tomorrow he will be tested on Chapter 9: Complex Cognitive Processes from the book Educational Psychology. He will not only need to understand the main concepts, but he will also need to apply these concepts in his exam. He thinks that the chapter contains a lot of information and he feels as if can neither remember all information nor find ways to apply the most important concepts and principles. He therefore simply started to read the chapter over and over using rote memorization.

  1. Could you describe some learning strategies that you can teach or recommend to Tom to help him during his learning process? (3 points) Think about strategies you use or those that you model for your own students.
  2. It is probably a good idea for Tom to create a concept map related to the assigned book chapter. However, he wondered if you could make one for him instead so he can better understand the main concepts, principles, and their relationships. You can use any tool you want and either provide a link to your concept map in your Word file or add your concept map as an image to your Word Document. Some online tools you can use are Gliffy, Coggle, and Bubbl.Us. (5 points) ***Please note that you will need to make sure to share the complete link and give access to facilitator in order for these concept maps to be evaluated.****
  3. From what you have learned from this book chapter, design a pre, during, and post learning activities that will highlight the application of critical thinking, problem solving, and transfer of knowledge.
    1. Please describe learning activities (pre, during, post) that you would develop. The activities should be aligned with your area of expertise or an area associated with your career/educational goals. Please do not design activities for the reading of the textbook chapter that was presented in the scenario above;(3 points)
    2. Explain how the activities would contribute to complex cognitive processes like critical thinking, problem solving, and transfer of knowledge (you can also apply creativity and argumentation). (4 points)


Submitting Your Assignment
Please prepare assignment 4 in Microsoft Word and make sure you name the file “Assignment4”. At the top of your Word file, add the lesson name, your name, email address, and the date. 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 the submission of your assignment.

Grading Criteria
 
  • Discussed appropriate learning strategies that could help throughout the learning process (3)
  • Created a concept map that aligns with important concepts and principles of chapter 9 and their relationships (5)
  • Described pre, during, post activities related to the learning materials that promotes the use of complex cognitive processes (3)
  • Explained how the activities would promote the use of complex cognitive processes (4)

Points: 15