Cognitive Theories
and Applications

Gestalt Laws
  • Proximity
  • Good continuation
  • Similarity
  • common fate
Mind Mapping
  • Getting the information down on paper the way the mind handles it.
  • A-ha shift when making connections between once random idea
Informational processing view
  • the process by which information is either remembered or forgotten
    • three parts of memory system-sensory register, short term and long term memory
    • people must be paying attention to the information if they are to retain it (that is it must get from the sensory register, be processed initially to be put into the short term memory
    • it must be perceived, which takes time
    • once information is stored in the short term memory, it must be, through repetition, rehearsal and encoding put into long term memory, else it be forgotten.
    • Information stored in the long term memory may be retrieved back to short term memory
      • Long term memory is divided into three parts: episodic, semantic and procedural memory.
Levels of processing
  • The theory holds that if people are only likely to remember information that has been subjected to the greatest level of mental processing
Dual Code Theory
  • Related to the levels of processing theory which hypothesizes that information in long term memory is stored in two forms: visual and verbal, corresponding to episodic and semantic memory.
  • information that is presented both visually and verbally will be recalled easier than information presented in just one way.
Transfer Appropriate Processing
  • A further modification of the level of processing theory, this states that the depth of processing alone does not determine the ease of recall, but rather how the information was learned and then tested.
  • strength and durability of memory depends also on the similarity between the conditions under which the material was learned and those under which it was called for.
Memory Strategies
  • Paired-association
    • imagery
  • Serial learning
    • mnemonics
    • loci
    • pegword
    • rhyming
  • Free-recall
Practice
  • Distributed practice is better for retention, even over shorter periods of time
  • Part learning helps reduce retroactive inhibition
  • Automacy frees the conscious mind and short term memory for more complex tasks
  • Overlearning increases retention
  • Enactment--we learn by doing

 

Quick Overview | Instruction and Learning | Modes of Learning | Constructivist Approaches

Multiple Intelligence Theory | Changing the Way Learning Happens

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