Cognitivism

                                                     Cognitivism

Cognitivism theorists recognize that much learning involves associations established through contiguity and repetition. They also acknowledge the importance of reinforcement, although they stress its role in providing feedback about the correctness of responses over its role as a motivator. There are some key concepts of cognitive theory:

1.     Schema: It is an internal knowledge structure. New information is compared to existing cognitive structures called “schema”. Schema may be combined, extended or altered to accommodate new information.

2.     Three-stage information Processing Model: Input first enters a sensory register, then is processed in short-term memory and then is transferred to long-term memory for storage and retrieval.

3.     Meaningful Effects: Meaningful information is easier to learn and remember. If a learner links relatively meaningless information with prior schema it will be easier to retain.

4.     Serial Position Effects: It is easier to remember items from the beginning or end of list rather than those in the middle of the list, unless that item is distinctly different.

5.     Practice Effects: Practicing or rehearsing improves retention especially when it is distributed practice. By distributing practices the learner associates the material with many different contexts rather than the one context afforded by mass practice.

6.     Transfer Effects: The effects of prior learning on learning new tasks or material.

7.     Interference Effects: Occurs when prior learning interferes with the learning of new material.

8.     Organization Effects: When a learner categorizes input such as a grocery list, it is easier to remember.

9.     Levels of Processing Effects: Words may be processed at a low-level sensory analysis of their physical characteristics to high level semantic analysis of their meaning. The more deeply a word is process the easier it will be to remember.

10.      State Dependent Effects: If learning takes place within a certain context it will be easier to remember within that context rater than in a new context.

11.      Mnemonic Effects: Mnemonic are strategies used by learners to organize relatively meaningless input more meaningful images or semantic contexts.

12.      Schema Effects: If information does not fit a person’s schema it may be more difficult for them to remember and what they remember or how they conceive of it may also be affected by their prior schema.

13.      Advance Organizers: Advance organizers prepare the learner for the material they are about to learn. They are not simply outlines of the material, but are material that will enable the student to make sense out of the lesson.

In this theory, the goal is to train learners to do a task the same way to enable consistency. For example, logging onto and off of a workplace computer is the same for all employees. However, the weakness is that learner learns a way to accomplish a task, but it may not be the best way, or suited to the learner or the situation. For example, logging onto the internet on one computer may not be the same as logging in on another computer.