Untitled

Research

Cognitive psychology has its foundations in the work of Jean
Piaget, David Ausubel, Robert Gagne, Lev Vygotsky, and
Jerome Bruner. Cognitive psychologists are interested in
how people understand, diagnose, and solve problems,
concerning themselves with the mental processes which
mediate between stimulus and response. Cognitive
psychologists have tried to reach a greater
understanding of human memory and language. In
recent years, cognitive psychology has become associated
with information processing theory, which studies the
parallels between the human brain and the computer, in the
ways that both can receive, process, store, and retrieve
information(http:www.encyclopedia.com/articles/02902.html) .

Jean Piaget: Piaget is the most famous of cognitive theorists, and first became interested in thought processes while field-testing questions that were being considered for a standard intelligence test for children (Berger, 1986). Piaget's work was directed at elaborating a theory of knowledge of how the child comes to know his or her world. This study of the origins of knowledge (epistemology) led to Piaget's calling his view genetic epistemology. He also called his view constructivism because he firmly believed that knowledge acquisition is a process of continuous self-construction (Driscoll, 2000). Piaget's work also provided a way to view the cognitive development of children that may be applied to the mentally retarded (Gearheart et. al., 1984).

http://cogsci.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/genpub.html

http://www-psych.stanford.edu/cogsci/

CLASSROOM APPLICATION

David Ausubel: Ausubel thought that meaning was at the very core of cognitive experience. He developed a theory of meaningful learning on a course parallel with and essentially unaffected by the cognitive information processing theory. Ausubel thought that meaning was not something that resides "in the text" and outside the learner. He said that meaning occurs when learners actively interpret their experiences using certain internal, cognitive operations.
"If Ausubel had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, he would say this: The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly" (Driscoll, 2000).

http://psychology.merlot.org:8500/

http://www.ascd.org/pdi/announ.htm

http://www.ask.com/main/askjeeves.asp?ask=memory+techniques

Classroom Application

Robert Gagne: Gagne developed conditions of learning, and that theory has since evolved from being extensively behavioral to predominantly cognitive in nature. Gagne's theory incorporates three major components: a taxonomy of learning outcomes, specific learning conditions required for the attainment of each outcome, and the nine events of instruction (Driscoll, 2000).

http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~ircs/homepage.html

Classroom Application

GAGNE'S NINE EVENTS OF INSTRUCTION ASSOCIATED WITH THE
INTERNAL LEARNING PROCESS THEY SUPPORT

Internal Process Instructional Event Action

Reception Gaining attention Use abrupt stimulus change.

Expectancy Informing learners of the objective Tell learners what they will be able to do after learning.

Retrieval to Working Memory Stimulating recall of prior learning Ask for recall of previously learned knowledge or skills.

Selective perception Presenting the content Display the content with distinctive features.

Semantic encoding Providing "learning guidance" Suggest a meaningful organization

Responding Eliciting performance Ask learner to perform

Reinforcement Providing feedback Give informative feedback

Retrieval and reinforcement Assessing performance Require additional learner performance with feedback

Retrieval and generalization Enhancing retention and transfer Provide varied practice and spaced reviews.

Lev Vygotsky: Vygotsky attempted to understand the formation of intellect by focusing on its process of development and took a fundamentally different approach from other developmental theorists. The larger question for Vygotsky had to do with how human beings came to develop higher psychological processes in the first place. How do individuals, through childhood, come to possess the cognitive functions they exhibit later in life.
"In criticizing developmental stage theories, Vygotsky wrote:
These schemes do not take into account the reorganization of the process of development itself, by virtue of which the importance and significance of any characteristic is continually changing in the transition from one age to another. This excludes the possibility of breaking childhood down into separate epochs by using a single criterion for all ages. Child development is a very complex process which cannot be fully defined in any of its stages solely on the basis of one characteristic" (Driscoll, 2000).

http://coglab.psych.purdue.edu/coglab/

http://interscience.wiley.com/jpages/0888-4080/

Classroom Application

Jerome Bruner: Bruner believed that the most important outcome of cognitive development was thinking. He thought that the well-developed mind, the intelligent mind, creates from experience generic coding systems that permit one to go beyond the date to new and possibly fruitful predictions. The aim of education then is to make the learner as autonomous and self-propelled a thinker as possible (Driscoll, 2000).

http://www.ascd.org/educationnews.html

http://www.haverford.edu/psych/CogPsycpage.html

Classroom Application

Bruner's Three Modes of Cognitive Representation

Mode Definition Implication for Instruction

Enactive Representing one's understanding through motor responses Use manipulatives and tactile instructional strategies with young children to teach concepts with which learners have no prior experience.

Iconic Using images to represent understanding Accompany instruction with diagrams and other strategies that appeal to the imagination.

Symbolic Using symbols such as language, musical notation, and mathematical notation to represent understanding Use familiar symbol systems when teaching new concepts in a subject when the learner already has prior experience.

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Jean Piaget:	Piaget is the most famous of cognitive theorists, and first became interested in thought processes while field-testing questions that were being considered for a standard intelligence test for children (Berger, 1986). Piaget's work was directed at elaborating a theory of knowledge of how the child comes to know his or her world. This study of the origins of knowledge (epistemology) led to Piaget's calling his view genetic epistemology. He also called his view constructivism because he firmly believed that knowledge acquisition is a process of continuous self-construction (Driscoll, 2000). Piaget's work also provided a way to view the cognitive development of children that may be applied to the mentally retarded (Gearheart et. al., 1984).
	http://cogsci.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/genpub.html
	http://www-psych.stanford.edu/cogsci/
	CLASSROOM APPLICATION

David Ausubel:	Ausubel thought that meaning was at the very core of cognitive experience. He developed a theory of meaningful learning on a course parallel with and essentially unaffected by the cognitive information processing theory. Ausubel thought that meaning was not something that resides "in the text" and outside the learner. He said that meaning occurs when learners actively interpret their experiences using certain internal, cognitive operations. "If Ausubel had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, he would say this: The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly" (Driscoll, 2000).
	http://psychology.merlot.org:8500/
	http://www.ascd.org/pdi/announ.htm
	http://www.ask.com/main/askjeeves.asp?ask=memory+techniques
	Classroom Application

Robert Gagne:	Gagne developed conditions of learning, and that theory has since evolved from being extensively behavioral to predominantly cognitive in nature. Gagne's theory incorporates three major components: a taxonomy of learning outcomes, specific learning conditions required for the attainment of each outcome, and the nine events of instruction (Driscoll, 2000).
	http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~ircs/homepage.html
	Classroom Application

Reception	Gaining attention	Use abrupt stimulus change.
Expectancy	Informing learners of the objective	Tell learners what they will be able to do after learning.
Retrieval to Working Memory	Stimulating recall of prior learning	Ask for recall of previously learned knowledge or skills.
Selective perception	Presenting the content	Display the content with distinctive features.
Semantic encoding	Providing "learning guidance"	Suggest a meaningful organization
Responding	Eliciting performance	Ask learner to perform
Reinforcement	Providing feedback	Give informative feedback
Retrieval and reinforcement	Assessing performance	Require additional learner performance with feedback
Retrieval and generalization	Enhancing retention and transfer	Provide varied practice and spaced reviews.

Lev Vygotsky:	Vygotsky attempted to understand the formation of intellect by focusing on its process of development and took a fundamentally different approach from other developmental theorists. The larger question for Vygotsky had to do with how human beings came to develop higher psychological processes in the first place. How do individuals, through childhood, come to possess the cognitive functions they exhibit later in life. "In criticizing developmental stage theories, Vygotsky wrote: These schemes do not take into account the reorganization of the process of development itself, by virtue of which the importance and significance of any characteristic is continually changing in the transition from one age to another. This excludes the possibility of breaking childhood down into separate epochs by using a single criterion for all ages. Child development is a very complex process which cannot be fully defined in any of its stages solely on the basis of one characteristic" (Driscoll, 2000).
	http://coglab.psych.purdue.edu/coglab/
	http://interscience.wiley.com/jpages/0888-4080/
	Classroom Application

Jerome Bruner:	Bruner believed that the most important outcome of cognitive development was thinking. He thought that the well-developed mind, the intelligent mind, creates from experience generic coding systems that permit one to go beyond the date to new and possibly fruitful predictions. The aim of education then is to make the learner as autonomous and self-propelled a thinker as possible (Driscoll, 2000).
	http://www.ascd.org/educationnews.html
	http://www.haverford.edu/psych/CogPsycpage.html
	Classroom Application

Enactive	Representing one's understanding through motor responses	Use manipulatives and tactile instructional strategies with young children to teach concepts with which learners have no prior experience.
Iconic	Using images to represent understanding	Accompany instruction with diagrams and other strategies that appeal to the imagination.
Symbolic	Using symbols such as language, musical notation, and mathematical notation to represent understanding	Use familiar symbol systems when teaching new concepts in a subject when the learner already has prior experience.