Cognitive Learning Theory
Think About It Activity 2.3
Yes or No:
Do you think that the brain functions like a computer and reflection and processing are important for learning?
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Yes
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No
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Cognitivism emphasizes information processing, the mental processes that a learner uses as they apply skills and knowledge. 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 processing and remembering newly incoming information. Cognitive theorists liken the human mind unto a computer in their explanation of learning: information comes in, is processed, and leads to certain outcomes.
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Behaviorism vs. Cognitivism Behaviorists are concerned with what learners do to answers questions; whereas, cognitivists are interested in how learners explain how they arrive at an answer to a question.
Cognitive 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. However, even while accepting such behavioristic concepts, cognitive theorists view learning as involving the acquisition or reorganization of the cognitive structures through which humans process and store information." (Good & Brophy, 1990, p. 187). |
©2010 By Michael and Amanda Szapkiw.