COGNITIVE THEORY OF LEARNING

What Is Cognitive Psychology?

Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember and learn. As part of the larger field of cognitive science, this branch of psychology is related to other disciplines including neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics.

The core focus of cognitive psychology is on how people acquire, process and store information. There are numerous practical applications for cognitive research, such as ways to improve memory, how to increase decision-making accuracy, and how to structure educational curricula to enhance learning.

Until the 1950s, behaviorism was the dominant school of thought in psychology. Between 1950 and 1970, the tide began to shift against behavioral psychology to focus on topics such as attention, memory, and problem solving. Often referred to as the cognitive revolution, this period generated considerable research including processing models, cognitive research methods and the first use of the term "cognitive psychology."

"Cognitive learning is the result of listening, watching, touching or experiencing. Cognitive learning is defined as the acquisition of knowledge and skill by mental or cognitive processes ;the procedures we have for manipulating information 'in our heads'. Cognitive processes include creating mental representations of physical objects and events, and other forms of information processing.

In cognitive learning, the individual learns by listening, watching, touching, reading, or experiencing and then processing and remembering the information. Cognitive learning might seem to be passive learning, because there is no motor movement. However, the learner is quite active, in a cognitive way, in processing and remembering newly incoming information.

Memory refers to the processes that are used to acquire, store, retain and later retrieve information. There are three major processes involved in memory: encoding, storage and retrieval.

Much of this stored memory lies outside of our awareness most of the time, except when we actually need to use it. The retrieval process allows us to bring stored memories into conscious awareness

Sir Frederick Bartlett was known for his study of memory. He placed his emphasis on studies under natural conditions. He felt that past experiences helped reconstruct the material able to be retrieved. He used a method called serial reproduction. This method allowed subjects to recall stories on more than one occasion with varying retention intervals.

In order to form new memories, information must be changed into a usable form, which occurs through the process known as encoding. Once information has been successfully encoded, it must be stored in memory for later use.

Sensory memory is the earliest stage of memory. During this stage, sensory information from the environment is stored for a very brief period of time, generally for no longer than a half-second for visual information and 3 or 4 seconds for auditory information. We attend to only certain aspects of this sensory memory, allowing some of this information to pass into the next stage - short-term memory.

Short-term memory, also known as active memory, is the information we are currently aware of or thinking about. Paying attention to sensory memories generates the information in short-term memory. Most of the information stored in active memory will be stored for approximately 20 to 30 seconds. While many of our short-term memories are quickly forgotten, attending to this information allows it to continue on the next stage - longterm memory.

Long-term memory refers to the continuing storage of information.

This information is largely outside of our awareness, but can be called into working memory to be used when needed. Some of this information is fairly easy to recall, while other memories are much more difficult to access.

What Is Attention? Attention is a concept studied in cognitive psychology that refers to how we actively process specific information present in our environment. Attention allows you to tune out information, sensations and perceptions that are not relevant at the moment and instead focus your energy on the information that is important.

Intelligence encompasses a number of mental abilities such as reasoning, planning and problem-solving. Intelligence is not something we can see or hear, or taste. We can see the results of intelligence...sometimes. Many argue that quantifying intelligence correctly is impossible and all that modern IQ tests do is test our knowledge and abilities.

What Is Problem-Solving?
Problem-solving is a mental process that involves discovering, analyzing and solving problems. The ultimate goal of problem-solving is to overcome obstacles and find a solution that best resolves the issue (Reed, 2000).

Wolfgang Kohler was known for his early criticism of the characterization of problem solving. His famous study involved an ape in a cage, Sultan, that was given two hollow bamboo sticks. A banana was placed outside the cage out of range for the sticks to reach it. For a certain amount of time the ape tried to reach the banana with the sticks, failing each time. At a certain point Sultan was observed to sit quietly for a time, after which he put the two sticks together. Kohler called the sudden solution that followed the quiet time "insight" and concluded that it was a typical property of problem solving.

According to psychologist and philosopher William James, attention is the taking possession of the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what may seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thoughtsIt implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others.

Decision making can be regarded as the mental processes (cognitive process) resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.

Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs.