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cognitive Learning Theoryc

~rom notes on Ormond's Human Learningc

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Since the 1960's cognitivism has provided the predominant

perspective within which Learning Research has been
conducted and theories o~ learning have evolved.c

History o~ and assumptions o~ cognitivism:c

Edward Tolman proposed a theory that had a cognitive ~lair.

He was a behaviorist but valued internal mental phenomena
in his explanations o~ how learning occurs.c
c

Some o~ his central ideas were:c

Behavior should be studied at a local level.c

Learning can occur without rein~orcement.c

Learning can occur without a change in behavior.c

Intervening variables must be considered.c

Behavior is purposive.c

Expectations o~ ~act behavior.c

Learning results in an organized body o~ in~ormation.c

c
Based on his research o~ rats, Tolman proposed that rats
and other organisms develop cognitive maps o~ their
environments. They learn where di~~erent parts o~ the
environment are situated in relation to one another. The
concept o~ a cognitive map also called a mental map has
continued to be a ~ocus o~ research.c
c

Gestalt psychology:c

Gestalt psychologist emphasized the importance o~

organizational processes o~ perception, learning, and
problem solving. They believed that individuals were
predisposed to organize in~ormation in particular ways. c

The basic ideas o~ Gestalt psychology are:c

c

1. Perception is o~ten di~~erent ~rom reality. This

includes optical illusions.c

2. The whole is more than the sum o~ its parts.

They believed that human experience cannot be
explained unless the overall experience is
examined instead o~ individual parts o~
experience.c

3. The organism structures and organizes

experience. The German word Gestalt means
"structured whole." This means an organism
structures experience even though structure
might not be necessarily inherent.c

4. The organism is predisposed to organize experience in

particular ways. For example, the law o~ proximity is that
people tend to perceive as a unit those things that are close
together in space. Second example: similar people tend to
perceive as a unit those things that are similar to one
another.c
c

Problem-solving involves restructuring and insight. It was

proposed that problem-solving involves mentally combining
and re-combining the various elements o~ a problem until a
structure that solves the problem is achieved.c
c

Piaget's developmental theoryc

Besides psychology, Piaget was interested in epistemology.
Piaget used something he called the clinical method. This
was research in which he gave children a series o~ tasks or
problems, asking questions about each one. He then tailored
his interviews to the particular responses that each child
gave. His ~ollow-up questions varied ~rom child to child. This
methodology was very di~~erent ~rom the methods o~
contemporary behaviorist research.c
c

Piaget's ideas about human learning:c

c

People are active processors o~ in~ormation.

Instead o~ being passive respondents to
environmental conditions, human beings are
actively involved and interpreting and learning
~rom the events around them.c

Knowledge can be described in terms o~

structures that change with development. Piaget
proposed the concept o~ schema. As children
develop, new schemes emerge, and are
sometimes integrated with each other into
cognitive structures.c

Cognitive development results ~rom the

interactions that children have with their physical
and social environments. As a child explores his
world, and eventually they began to discover that
they hold a perspective o~ the world uniquely their
own.c

The process through which people interact with

the environment remains constant. According to
Piaget, people interact with their environment
through to unchanging processes known as
assimilation and accommodation.c

In accommodation, an individual either modi~ies

an existing scheme or ~orms a new one to
account ~or the new event.c

In assimilation an individual interacts with an

object or event in a way that is consistent with an
existing scheme.c

People are intrinsically motivated to try to make

sense o~ the world around them. According to this
view, people are sometimes in the state o~
equilibrium, they can com~ortably explain new
events in terms o~ their existing schemes.
However at times they can encounter events they
cannot explain our make sense o~ this is called
disequilibrium, a mental discom~ort. Through
reorganizing thought people are able to then
understand the previously un-understandable
 and return to equilibrium.c

Cognitive development occurs in distinct stages, with

thought processes at each stage being qualitatively di~~erent
~rom those and other stages.c
c

Piaget's ~our stages:c

Sensorimotor stage:c

Preoperational stage:c

Concrete Operations:c

Formal Operations:c
c

Sensorimotor stage: ~rom birth until about two years o~ age.

At this age children are only aware o~ objects that are
directly be~ore them, thus the saying, "out o~ sight, out o~
mind." (Example: The game o~ "peek-a-boo" is enjoyed only
by in~ants. Their joy in this game comes ~rom their "~inding"
the adult -- who"hides" by blocking the child's view and thus
"disappears" and "re-appears" as the child experiences it.)
c

Preoperational stage: emerges when children are about two

years old until they are about six to seven years old. This is
the stage o~ language development. Expanding childrens¶
vocabularies re~lect the many new mental schemes that are
developing. This stage is characterized by a logical thinking,
but not according toadult standards. A classic example is
how young children cannot understand conservation o~
liquid. They will usually think that a taller glass has more
water than a short glass even though both have been
demonstrated to have the exact same amount o~ water.c
c

Concrete operations: this third stage o~ cognitive

development appears when children are six or seven years
old and continues until they are about 11 or 12 years old.
Children begin to think logically about conservation problems
and other situations as well. However, they typically can
apply their logical operations only to concrete, observable
objects and events.c
c

Formal operations: the ~ourth and ~inal stage usually appears

a~ter children are 11 or 12 years o~ age and continues to
evolve ~or several years a~ter that time. During this time the
child develops the ability to reason with abstract,
hypothetical, and contrary-to-~act in~ormation.c
c

[It must be noted that some recent research does not

con~irm Piaget's ~our stages in their entirety.]c
c

Vygotsky's developmental theory:c

This Russian psychologist conducted numerous
studies o~ children's thinking. c

Some o~ his most in~luential ideas are:c

c

1. Complex mental processes began as social

activities. As children develop, they gradually
analyze these processes and can use them
independently o~ those around him. Vygotsky
 called this process o~ social activities being
internalized as mental activities "internalization."c

2. Children can o~ten accomplish more di~~icult

tasks when they have the assistance o~ other
people more advanced and competent than
themselves.c

3. Tasks within the zone o~ proximal development

promote maximum cognitive growth. This is the
zone o~ learning ~or a child where he can learn
something with the assistance o~ others. Without
such assistance he would not be able to learn the
subject. c

4. The idea o~ sca~~olding learning comes ~rom Vygotsky's

zone o~ proximal development theory. Sca~~olding re~ers to
learning situations in which adults and other more competent
individuals provide some ~orm o~ guidance or structure that
enables students to engage in learning activities within their
zone o~ proximal development.c
c

$%Verbal Learning Research

$%Verbal learning research is another area that has a~~ected

cognitive theory. Verbal learning research studied serial
learning and paired social learning. Serial learning is
characterized by a particular pattern. People usually learn
the ~irst ~ew items and the last ~ew items ~irst o~ a list (i.e.,
they are more likely to ~orget items ~rom the middle o~ the list
than the beginning or the end).c
c

Overlearning is learning something to the level o~

 mastery and then practicing additionally. Overlearned
material is more easily recalled at a later time.c

Distributed practice is easily more e~~ective than

massed practice. This is the idea o~ spreading study
out over time instead o~ into one long cram session.c

Learning in one situation o~ten a~~ects learning and

recall in a later situation.c

The characteristics o~ the material a~~ect the speed with

which people can learned it. For example, items
aremore quickly learned when they are meaning~ul,
pronounceable, concrete rather than abstract, or able
to be mentally visualized.c

People o~ten impose meaning when learning new

in~ormation.c

People organize what they learn.c

People o~ten use coding strategies to help them learn.

(Examples: mnemonics -- like the strategy o~
remembering "HOMES" as a mnemonic ~or the names
o~ the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie,
and Superior; or a rhyme, like "In 1492, Columbus
sailded the ocean blue" to remember that date)c

People are more likely to learn general ideas than to learn

words verbatim.c
Introduction to Contemporary
Cognitivismc
General assumptions o~ cognitive theories:
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