Chapter 6 Social Cognitive Approach
Focus: How people learn from one another, encompassing such concepts as observational learning,
imitation and modeling.
- Primarily with human beings
Principles:
- People learn by observation
o Modify their behavior based on the consequences (reinforcement)
o Modeling the behavior of other being
- Learning can occur without change in behavior
o Learning through observation alone may not be reflected in their actions
- Consequences play a role in learning
o Reinforcement and Punishment have less critical, indirect effects on learning
- Cognitive plays a role
o Theorists have become more “cognitive” in its analysis of human learning
 Awareness, attention, retention, and expectation are the explanations of how
learning occurs
 Awareness of response (reinforcement & response)
 Expectation of future reinforcements & punishments
 Attention and Retention (memory)
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People have considerable control over their actions and environment
o Taking active steps to create or modify their environment
 Either their own or by convincing others
 Do so consciously and intentionally
Bandura said “Human being have Personal Agency”
Environmental Factors in Social Learning: Revisiting Reinforcement and
Punishment
Miller & Dollard
- Proposed that people imitate others b/c they are reinforced to do so
o Using someone else’s behavior as a discriminative stimulus for an imitative response
 Therefore they are reinforced for displaying imitation
- Named the phenomenon called generalized imitation
o When imitation becomes a habit
How the Environment Reinforces and Punishes Modeling
Bandura
Suggested that the environment occasionally punishes modeling
- Possible ways include:
o The observer is reinforced by the model
 Accepting a member for their dress
 Acting tough to become a gang member
 Parents teaching children the culture
o Reinforced by a third person
 Children reinforced when acting like other kids
 Sporting a haircut after the Beatles
 Reinforced by portraying celebrities
o Imitated behavior itself leads to reinforcing consequences
 Modeling your tennis instructor on how to hit a ball
 Behaviors that produce satisfying (Reinforcing) results
o Consequences of the model’s behavior affect the observer’s behavior vicariously
 Observing the consequences of the response
 Vicarious reinforcement
 When the model is reinforced for a response, then the observer may
show an increase in that response
Study by Bandura
- Illustrated the power of vicarious reinforcement and punishment
- E.g. The inflated punching doll
Problems with a Strict Behaviorist Analysis of Social Learning (3)
1. Problem occurs when new behaviors typically start from existing behaviors that are
gradually shaped and modified over time
2. Problem lies in the powerful effect of vicarious reinforcement:
a. Individuals sometimes exhibit behaviors for which they themselves are never
reinforced
3. Problem called the delayed imitation:
a. Learned behavior through observation do not appear until later in time
Bandura has pointed out that the response and resulting reinforcement do not always appear
immediately after the discriminative stimulus but instead may occur days later.
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Social Cognitive Theorist suggest that cognitive factors be added to the picture
o Consequences often have an indirect effect rather than a direct one on learning
Cognitive Factors in Social Learning
Central Ideas:
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Learning is, first and foremost, a mental (rather than behavioral) acquisition.
o Distinction between
 Learning through observation (something called vicarious acquisition)
 Actual performance of what has been learned
o E.g. the children watching the aggressive model
 Later they were promised rewards and their behavior changed
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Certain cognitive processes are essential for learning to occur
o E.g. is thinking
o Process of paying attention to what the model is doing, then mentally rehearsing
aspects of the model’s performance and forming mental representation (Memory
Codes) of what the model has done
Learners must be aware of existing response-consequence contingencies
o Reinforcement and punishment have little effect on learning behavior unless people
have mental awareness of the response-reinforcement and response-punishment
contingencies
o E.g. student receiving comments such as “Poorly written” and “Disorganized” written on
the margins of an assignment. (proves to be insufficient to bring about improvement)
 Does not correctly identify the specific parts which were poorly written or
disorganized
Learners form expectations for future response-consequence contingencies
o E.g. is reinforcement
o Most likely to perform the behaviors they’ve learned when they expect a payoff
o When someone is punished for certain behaviors
 Likely to form outcome expectations: A hypothesis about the results that future
actions are likely to bring—and behave in ways that will maximize desirable
consequences
 May also occur when observing others reinforced or punished for certain
behaviors
 Explains the effectiveness of vicarious reinforcement & punishment
o Concept of incentive
 Anticipating that a particular reinforcement twill occur if a particular behavior is
performed
 Social Cognitive Theory:
 When an expectation of reinforcement—an incentive—influences the
learning of a behavior it precedes
Learners also form beliefs about their own ability to perform various behaviors
o not only do they form expectations, but they also form efficacy expectations
 Beliefs about whether they themselves can execute particular behaviors
successfully
 E.g. Given the criteria for an A in a class, but do not believe that you possess the
knowledge or skills to meet the criteria
Outcome and Efficacy expectation influence cognitive processes that promote learning
o Extent to which learners actively engage in cognitive process essential for learning
depends on their beliefs about the likelihood that learning something will lead to
reinforcement
o E.g. mistake of telling students they will not be held responsible for certain information
The non-occurrence of expected consequences is an influential consequence in and of itself.
o The nonoccurrence of expected reinforcement if often a form of punishment
o The nonoccurrence of expected punishment can be reinforcing
o E.g. Given the criteria for an A, but also given the added assignment at the last minute of
writing a paper to obtain an A
 Believe you possess the skills and determination to obtain an A
 Frustrated b/c you had expected reinforcement based on the work you had
already completed and now that reinforcement is being withheld
Walters and Parke study
- Determined that when people see others misbehave w/o negative consequences, they are more
likely to misbehave themselves.
Reciprocal Causation
Behavior can also influence both the environment and the person
3 variables
- Environment
- Person
- Behavior
o Interact to form reciprocal causation
Modeling
How Modeling Affects Behavior
- Modeling teaches new behaviors
o People learn new behaviors by observing others perform those behaviors
 E.g. listening and imitating sounds; hitting a baseball
- Modeling influences the frequency of previously learned behaviors
o Concept that vicarious reinforcement has a facilitation effect
o People are less likely to perform behaviors for which they have seen others being
punished; in other words, vicarious punishment has an inhibition effect
- Modeling may encourage previously forbidden behaviors
o When behavior has previously been described as forbidden or “wrong” and especially
when reinforced for engaging in that behavior, they themselves are more likely to
display the behavior.
o Vicarious reinforcement has a disinhibition effect (b/c previously inhibited behavior is
now reoccurring)
Walters et al study
- Adults viewing a film depicting violence and aggression or a neutral film
- Told to administer “shocks” to other individuals.
- The individuals were behaving as if they were shocked when really they were not
- People who watched the violent, aggressive film administered more frequent and more intense
“shocks”
o The film had apparently disinhibited previously learned aggressive behavior
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Modeling increases the frequency of similar behaviors
o When someone observes model performing a particular behavior, that person may
display similar rather than identical behavior.
o E.g. boy who sees his older brother excel at basketball but lack the height may become a
successful soccer player
Characteristics of Effective Models
Bandura
Identified three general types of models:
1. Live Model
a. An actual person demonstrating a particular behavior
2. Symbolic Model
a. A person or character portrayed in a book, film, television show, videogame, or other
medium.
3. Verbal instructions
a. Descriptions of how to behave—without another human being, either live or symbolic,
being present at all
- The model is competent
o People demonstrating are more likely to be imitated by others if they are viewed as
being competent, capable individuals
- The model has prestige and power
o Individuals who have high status, respect, and power, either within a small group or
within society as a whole, are more likely to serve as models for others
Sasso &Rude study
- Indentified several children who were popular with their peer group and several others who
were less popular
- Taught the children methods of initiating appropriate ways of socially interacting with children
who had physical disabilities.
o When they saw the popular classmates interacting with the children with disabilities,
they were likely to do so as well
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The model behaves in stereotypical “gender-appropriate” ways
o Males are more likely to model behavior that is consistent with male stereotypes
o Females are more likely to model behaviors that follow traditional female patterns
Bandura & Ross study
- Children watched adult models of both genders being aggressive, boys were more likely than
girls to imitate the aggressive behaviors, presumably because aggressive is a trait more
frequently associated with males than with females
o Altering the models behavior may influence children to realize that most behaviors are
truly appropriate for both genders
- The Model’s behavior is relevant to the observer’s situation
o Individuals are more likely to model the behaviors of people they view as similar to
themselves in some important way.
o More likely to model behaviors that have functional value in their own circumstances
Behaviors That Can Be Learned Through Modeling
- A variety of studies with children and adults indicate that people:
o Become better readers when their parents read frequently at home
o Acquire new social skills when they watch videos of people effectively using those skills
o Are more likely to resist the enticement of a stranger when a peer has modeled
techniques for resisting such enticements
o May begin to respond emotionally to certain stimuli in the same ways that they see
others react to those stimuli
o Are more likely to show intolerance of racist statements when people around them
refuse to tolerate such statements
- Considerable research has been conducted concerning the impact of modeling on three kinds of
behavior in particular:
1. Academic Skills
- Students learn many academic skills by seeing other demonstrate those skills
- Often times they learn academic skills more effectively when models demonstrate not only how
to do something but also how to think about something—in other words, when models engage
in cognitive modeling.
2. Aggression
- Numerous research studies indicate that children become more aggressive when they observe
aggressive or violent models
- Children can also learn aggression from observing it in films, television shows, or video games
3. Morality
- Children appear to acquire moral behaviors partly through observation and modeling
- Models in the media can have an impact as well
o Some character in popular media promote pro-social behaviors—those aimed at helping
others rather than at enhancing one’s own well-being
- Moral judgments regarding right and wrong may also develop, at least in part, through modeling
o To be more effective, models must practice what they preach
Condition Necessary for Effective Modeling to Occur (4)
Bandura has suggested that four conditions are necessary before an individual can successfully model
the behavior of someone else:
1. Attention
- To imitate a behavior accurately, a person must first pay attention to the model and especially
to the significant aspects of the modeled behavior
o Paying attention to the irrelevant parts of the model ore her behavior will, of course,
not be helpful
2. Retention
- After paying attention, the learner must also remember the behavior that has been observed
o Ways to remember what one has seen
 Rehearsal—repeating whatever needs to be remembered over and over again
 Memory codes—serve as guides when people perform the observed behavior,
whether they perform it immediately after the model has demonstrated it or at
some time in the future
 Memory codes are both verbal & visual representations of the behaviors they
have seen
 Considerable evidence indicates that learning from a model is easier if
learners have assistance in forming memory codes for the behaviors
they observe
3. Motor Reproduction
- Condition necessary for successful modeling is, of course, actual replication of the behavior that
a model has demonstrated
o If an individual cannot reproduce an observed behavior, perhaps because of physical
immaturity, lack of strength, or disability (does not occur)
o Reproduction of an observed behavior as it’s being observed facilitates learning for at
least two reasons
 Enables learners to encode the behavior in verbal & visual form
 Enables learners to encode the behavior in a motoric form
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Modeling a behavior in the presence of the model, learners can get feedback
about how to improve their performance
4. Motivation
- Learners must want to demonstrate what they have learned.
- Most important ingredient in this process is self-efficacy, and in this respect learners are often
very different from one another
Self-Efficacy
People are more likely to engage in certain behavior when they believe they are capable of executing
the behaviors successfully—that is, when they have high self-efficacy
- The belief that one is capable of understanding and remembering ideas presented to them
Important difference
- One’s self-concept addresses the question “Who am I?”
- Self-esteem addresses the question “How good am I as a person?”
- Self-efficacy addresses the question “How well can I do such-and-such?”
o Other words it refers to learners’ belief about their competence in a specific activity or
domain
How Self-Efficacy Affects Behavior
- Choice of Activities
o People tend to choose tasks and activities at which they believe they can succeed
o They tend to avoid those at which they think they will fail
- Goals
o People set higher goals for themselves when they have high self-efficacy in a particular
domain
 E.g. adolescents’ choices of careers and occupational levels reflect areas in
which they have high rather than low self-efficacy
- Effort and Persistence
o People with a high sense of self-efficacy are more likely to exert effort when they work
at a task, and they are more likely to persist when they encounter obstacles
o People with low self-efficacy about a task put less effort
o Self-efficacy seems to be most predictive of effort and persistence when people have
not yet entirely mastered a new topic or skill
Learning and Achievement
- People with high self-efficacy tend to learn and achieve more than those with low self-efficacy,
even when actual ability levels are the same
o Several individuals have equal ability
o Those who believe they can do the task are more likely to accomplish it than those who
do not believe they are capable of success
- Ideally, learners should have a reasonably accurate sense of what they can and cannot
accomplish, putting them at a good position to capitalize on their strength and address their
weaknesses
Distinguish between
- Self-efficacy for learning (I can learn this if I put my mind to it)
o Should be on the optimistic side
- Self-efficacy for performance (I already know how to do this)
o More in line with current ability levels
- Too overconfident: may set themselves up for failure by forming unrealistically high
expectations or exerting insufficient effort to succeed
- Underestimate their abilities: set low goals for themselves and give up easily in the face of small
obstacles.
Factors in the Development of Self-efficacy
Several factors include:
- Previous success and failures
o People feel more confident that they can succeed at a task—that is, they have greater
self-efficacy—when they have succeeded at that task or at similar ones in the past
 Child is more confident to play field hockey or rugby if she has already
developed skills in soccer
o People with a high sense of self-efficacy, an occasional failure is unlikely to dampen their
optimism very much
o This develops resilient self-efficacy: they learn that sustained effort and perseverance
are key ingredients for that success
o When people meet with consistent failure in performing a particular task they tend to
have little confidence in their ability to succeed at that task in the future
- Messages from others
o To some extent, people’s self-efficacy beliefs are enhanced when others praise good
performance or provide assurances that success is possible
 Statements such as:
“You can do this problem if you work at it”
“I’ll bet Judy will play with you if you just ask her”
 This boost is short-lived, unless students’ efforts at a task ultimately meet with
success
- Success and Failures of others
o People often acquire information about their own self-efficacy by observing the success
and failures of other individuals
 Especially those who appear to be similar to themselves
 Usually the success and failures of their peers
 Seeing a classmate model behavior successfully rather than a teacher
o It’s sometimes better to watch a peer model who struggles with a task at first and then
gradually masters it, rather than one who executes it perfectly at first shot
o This introduces the coping model
 Shows learners that success does not necessarily come easily—that they must
work hard and practice to achieve success—and allows them to observe the
strategies that the model employs to gain proficiency
- Success and Failures of the group as a Whole
o People may have greater self-efficacy when they work in a group than when they work
alone, and especially when they achieve success as a group.
 Such, collective self-efficacy is a function not only of people’s perception of self,
but their ability to work well with others
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With the addition to self-efficacy affects learners’ choice of activities, so, too,
does it affect teachers’ choices and the result is students achieving at higher
levels and have higher levels of self-efficacy
Self-Regulation
- Self-regulation: through both direct and vicarious reinforcement and punishment
o Children gradually learn which behaviors are and are not acceptable to the people
around them
o Eventually they develop their own ideas about appropriate and inappropriate behavior
- Techniques designed to promote self-regulation work only when learners are motivated to
change their own behavior
- Three precautions must be taken
1. People being trained must have the capability for performing the desired behavior
2. People must believe they can make the necessary behavior changes
3. People must be cautioned not to expect too much of themselves too quickly
Elements of Self-Regulation
- Setting Standards and Goals
o We tend to set standards for our own behavior; in other words, we establish criteria
regarding what constitutes acceptable performance
o The kinds of performance standards and goals that people establish for themselves
depend to some degree on the which ones other people adopt
o People are most apt to adopt the kinds of standards that models similar to themselves
in ability adopt
- Self-Observation
o Observing oneself in action
o Must be aware of how well they are doing
o Must also be aware of what needs improvements
- Self-Evaluation
o Begin to evaluate their own behaviors based on the standards they hold for themselves
- Self-Reaction
o As people become increasingly self-regulating, they begin to reinforce themselves
 Perhaps by feeling proud or telling themselves that they did a good job
 By feeling sorry, guilty, or ashamed when they do something that does not meet
their self-chosen performance standards
Promoting Self-Regulated Behavior
Several techniques for promoting self-regulated behavior
- Self-instructions
o Learners repeat self-instructions that guide their behavior
 E.g. dancing, tennis
o Effective in helping students acquire more effective approaches to academic tasks,
develop social skills, and keep their impulsive and aggressive behavior in check
Meichenbaum 5 steps
1. Cognitive modeling: An adult model performs the desired task while verbalizing instructions
that guide performance
2. Overt, external guidance: the child performs the task while listening to the adult verbalize
the instructions
3. Overt self-guidance: the child repeats the instructions aloud while performing the task
4. Faded, overt self-guidance: the child whispers the instructions while performing the task
5. Covert self-instructions: the child silently thinks about the instructions while performing the
task
Self-monitoring
- Another method that can help people control their own behavior is simply to have them
observe and assess their own responses—self-monitoring
o just as someone else might assess those responses in applied behavior analysis
o the mere recording of responses is often enough to alter the frequency of behavior
o desirable behaviors may be increased just as well as undesirable can be decreased
Self-Reinforcement
- People are often able to change their behavior through self-reinforcement,
o giving themselves a treat or special privilege when they behave in a desired fashion
o Withholding reinforcement when they do not
- E.g. students reinforcing themselves through free time, small treat, or simple praise
- Self-reinforcement can be just as effective in modifying student behaviors as reinforcement
administered by a teacher
Self-imposed Stimulus Control
- As in chapter 4, a response is under stimulus control when it is emitted in the presence of some
stimuli but not in the presence of others.
- Self-imposed stimulus control
o This idea can be translated into an effective means of promoting self-regulations
o To increased a desired behavior an individual might be instructed to seek out an
environment in which that behavior is most likely to occur
o Student going to a library who wishes to increase the time actually spent studying
The Cognitive Side of Self-Regulation
- Self-regulation involves cognitive processes as well as behavior
- Psychologists have applied the concept of self-regulation more explicitly to the control of one’s
mental processes
Educational Implications of Social Cognitive Theory
Some of the most important implications for classroom practices
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Students often learn a great deal simply by observing others
Describing the Consequences of Behaviors
o can affectively increase appropriate behaviors & decrease inappropriate ones
Modeling
o Provides alternative to shaping for teaching new behaviors
o Focus on the 4 essential conditions:
 Attention, Retention, Motor Production, and Motivation
o Teachers, Parents, and other adults must model appropriate behaviors and take care
that they don’t model inappropriate ones
Exposure to a variety of other models further enhances students’ learning
o Police officers, business people, nurses, or any prominent official
o Symbolic models such as Helen Keller or MLK
o Mail nurses, female engineers, wheel chair athletes
Students must believe they are capable of accomplishing school tasks
o Generalized Self-efficacy applies to many school areas of school curriculum
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Changing one task or skill at a time is easier than trying to change overall self-concept or
self-esteem
o Have peers show them how they have mastered certain things
Teachers should help students set realistic expectations for their accomplishments
o Make sure that their not unrealistic or under achieving
Self-regulation techniques provide effective methods for improving student behavior
Chapter 7 Introduction to Cognition and Memory
Introduction to Contemporary Cognitivism
- Learning theorist came to the realization mental events such as cognition had to be brought
into the picture
General Assumptions of Cognitive Theorists
1. Some learning processes may be unique to human beings
a. Learning is quite different for humans and animals
b. Humans have unique abilities (such as language)
c. All research is conducted on humans and is not generalized to any other species
2. Learning involves the formation of mental representation or associations that are not
necessarily reflected in overt behavior changes
a. Learning is an internal mental change, may not be reflected in performance
3. People are actively involved in the learning process
a. People are active and in control of their learning
b. Individuals determine how they process events, and this in turn will determine what is
learned
4. Knowledge is organized
a. Knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and emotions are all associated and interconnected
b. Learning contributes to this organization
c. Learning is usually more effective when new information is connected to what one
already knows
5. Objective, systematic observations of people’s behavior should be the focus of scientific inquiry;
however, inferences about unobservable mental processes can often be drawn from behavior
a. The study of learning must be objective and based on the results of empirical research
b. By observing responses that people make to different stimulus conditions, researchers
can draw inferences about the nature of internal mental events
c. Researchers have created ingenious studies to show this
d. People abstract general ideas from verbal information they receive (rather than learning
it from verbatim) and organized similar ideas together in their memories
Information processing theory
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Theorist focus on how people think about (process) the information they receive from the
environment
Information processing theories
- How one perceives the stimulus around them, how one puts what they perceived into
memory, how one finds what they’ve learned when they need to use it, and so on
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It used to be thought humans organized information much like a computer, but now we
know it is far more complex
IPT includes a variety of specific theories about how people mentally deal with the
information they receive
IPT is good at telling us how people learn, but not good at telling us exactly what is acquired
in the process
IPT biggest weakness is that it has been better at dissection than at synthesis
Constructivism
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People do a great deal with the information they acquire, actively trying to organize and
make sense of it, often and unique, idiosyncratic ways. Theorists portray learning as
constructing knowledge rather than directly acquiring it from the outside world
Individual Constructivism: construction occurs separately in each learner (we all have a
cognitive map) learners combine various special relationships they have learned into general
mental representations of how their environment is laid out
Social Constructivism: people work together to make sense of their world, perhaps at a
single sitting or perhaps over the course of many years
o E.g. students help one another interpret and understand a difficult textbook when
they cannot do it on their own
o This perspective places learning directly into the hands of the learner, and often
undermines the influence that teachers have
o Although learners are in the driver’s seat, teachers can provide a roadmap on how
to move
Contextual Theories
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Context: The immediate environment
Contextual Theories: Learners often think and perform more intelligently when they can
draw on a variety of environmental support systems that enable them to make sense of new
situation and help them tackle challenging tasks and problems
o Some environmental support are easy (calculators, computers, diagrams, and
equations)
o Some environmental supports are abstract and pervasive in ones’ culture (North,
East, South, West) only some cultures use this concept or creation
CT’s have a variety of labels attached to them:
o Situated learning, situated cognition, distributed learning, and distributed
intelligence (all of these refer to situations in which learning and thinking are
influenced by the physical and social context)
CT’s are fairly recent edition, there is not a lot of research on it yet
CT’s are beneficial because they bring our attention back to the importance of immediate
context
CT’s focus on general factors that support very thoughtful learning (physical social culture)
Integrating Cognitive Perspectives
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There is a fuzziness of the boundaries between these various cognitive perspectives
They all make significant contributions to our understanding when taken in combination
An Information Processing View of Human Memory
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Learning a piece of information at one time does not guarantee that you will remember it
later on
o Learning vs. Memory
 Learning: the acquisition of new information or skills involving a long term
change in mental representations or associations as a result of experience
 Memory: the ability to recall previously recalled information, or the process
of retaining information for a period of time (sometimes memory is referred
to as a particular location E.g. working memory or long term memory)
o Storage
 Storage: the process of putting new information in memory (putting a fact
in your head)
o Encoding
 Encoding: as people store information in memory, they usually modify it in
some way that this process often helps them store the information more
easily
 Sometimes encoding involves changing the form of the information
 Encoding may also involve adding to new information using ones’ existing
knowledge of the world
 Another encoding process is simplifying information
o Retrieval
 Retrieval: process by which people find information that they had previously
stored so that they can use it again
 Is quite easy in some cases but more difficult in others
 E.g. you hope someone is able to retrieve your birthday
A Dual-store Model of Memory (pg 168)
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Laid the groundwork for what has become the most prevalent view of memory today
Dual-store model – it has three components, it claims short-memory and long-term memory
are distinctly different
o Information from the environment first enters the sensory register, where it held for
only a very short time (a few seconds at the most).
o If the information is then processed in a particular way it moves on to the short
term memory. Information is held in short term memory for less than a minute
o If information is then processed further it moves on to the long term memory
o If information reaches the sensory register or short term memory, but is not then
processed sufficiently then the information is assumed to be lost or forgotten
o Whether information can be lost form long-term memory is still a question
o The Dual-store model of memory is like a selection and storage system similar to
how you might store important documents at home
o E.g. you may acquire numerous papers; such as newspapers, letters, bills, junk mail,
or receipts. You probably discard some items often as soon as you get them. Others
you deal with briefly, such as paying the bill. Still others you may put in long term
storage, such as a filing cabinet where you find them later
o Control Processes: cognitive processes that directly affect memories functioning
 Sensory Register: holds incoming information long enough for it to undergo
preliminary cognitive processing. All the environmental information we are
capable of sensing probably stays with us in the sensory register for a very
brief time
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1. Capacity: the capacity of the SR is unlimited
2. Forms of Storage: information is stored in SR basically in the same form
in which it is sensed. Information has not yet been understood or
interpreted by the learner (visual input is stored in visual form)
3. Duration: The duration is quite a brief time, but measuring the exact
duration is difficult. If you ask someone to report something that they
have stored the information automatically moves on to the working
memory, so is no longer in the place where we wanted to study it.
 Visual information is stored less than one second
 Auditory information is probably stored 2 to 4 seconds
 Information has rapid disappearance due to interference or decays
Moving information to a Working Memory: The role of Attention
 In order to move memory we must pay attention to it
 Information that individuals pay attention to moves onto working
memory, whereas information that is not attended to may be lost in
the memory system.
 Even when people pay attention to a particular stimulus, they don’t
necessarily attend to the important aspects of the stimulus (this
could be a reason someone failed a test)
Factors influencing Attention
1. Motion: moving objects are more likely to capture attention than
stationary ones
2. Size: attention tends to be drawn to large objects
3. Intensity: bright colors and loud noises attract attention
4. Novelty: stimuli that are novel or unusual in some way tend to draw
people attention
5. Incongruity: objects that don’t make sense within their context tend to
capture people’s attention
6. Emotion: stimuli with strong emotional associations attract attention
(blood & murder)
7. Personal Significance: the meaning and relevance people find in an
object or event can both capture and maintain attention
8. Social Cues: people are more likely to pay attention to things they see
others looking at and reacting to
Nature of Attention
 What cognitive processes underlie people’s ability to attend to
certain aspects of the environment and to ignore others?
 Cocktail Party phenomenon: you can go to a party at which
numerous conversations are going on simultaneously and
successfully attend to just one of them. You can attentively look and
nod as if you are paying attention to person in front of you, yet you
are somewhere else completely. You may be in a conversation
completely paying attention, but then you hear your name which
draws your attention away
 Shadowing: person is listening through earphone to 2
simultaneously spoken messages, and then the person is asked to
repeat one of those messages. Focusing in on one of the messages
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is fairly easy when the people have two very different voices.
Focusing in on one message is fairly easy when they are talking
about two different topics. Focusing in on the message becomes far
more difficult when the two voices and topics of the speaker are
similar. If one person chooses to attend to one message then they
will know very little of the other message
 Researchers likened auditory attention to a filter, you use some
physical characteristics while screening out others (people have a
hard time being inattentive to their own name or something
emotionally significant no matter how hard they try)
Attention has limited capacity
 Humans are incapable of attending to everything at once
 Peter-Paul example
 Figure-ground: an individual can attend to one object (the figure)
and notice the details of that object. Whatever the individual is not
paying attention to (the background or ground) is not carefully
inspected
 People can only attend to one complex situation at a time. In
situations in which more than one stimulus requires attention, one
attention must be switched back and forth to the other
 Limited processing capacity: this describes attention as involving
the number of stimuli being attended to depending on how much
cognitive processing is required for each one (E.g. it is easy for me
to drive my car and hold a conversation at the same time)
o Some tasks become automatic
 Learners must be quite selective about the information they choose
to process, and they must ignore a lot of information they receive
Working Memory
 Short term memory: storage mechanism that holds information for
a brief time after it is attended to so that it can be mentally
processed
 Working memory: includes the above plus cognitive processing
o WM is where thinking awareness and consciousness lie
o WM identifies information in the SR that warrants
attention, saves the information for a longer period of time,
and processes it further
o WM may hold and process information it retrieves from
long term memory, information that will help interpret new
input
 Central Executive: (how theorist portray working memory)
controlling and monitoring the flow and use of information
throughout the memory system. The central executive function
becomes increasingly sophisticated and effective as the brain
matures
Characteristics of the Working Memory
1. Capacity: WM has a very limited capacity
o
o
a. People can hold from 5 to 9 units of information in WM
at one time
b. The number of information units cannot be increased
beyond 7 +/- 2
c. Chunking: the process of combining pieces of
information someway that increases the amount of
information that the limited space of WM can hold
d. The number of items that can be stored depends on
how much information each item includes and how
strong the associations are
e. E.g. it is easier to remember 7 one syllable words than 7
two syllable words
2. Forms of Storage: it appears much of the information stored in
WM is encoded in auditory form (F being remembered as S)
a. WM includes ways of encoding information in other
forms as well (visual, spatial, and tactile)
b. Phonological Loop: a mechanism that can keep a small
amount of auditory information fresh through a storage
of information into LMconstant repetition
c. Visuospatial Sketchpad: a mechanism that allows
manipulation in short term retention of visual material
d. Episodic Buffer: a place where information from
multiple modalities can be integrated into an overall
understanding of a particular situation (episode)
e. Having a modality specific storage mechanism helps us
stretch our WM
3. Duration: WM is short
a. The duration of WM is somewhere between 5 and 20
seconds
Control Processes in Working Memory: 3 control processes effect the functioning of the WM
i.
Organization: chunking is one good way to organize, chunking increases as children get
older. Another organizational strategy is to apply rhythm , or melody. Another way to
organize is attaching some meaning to it.
ii.
Retrieval: retrieval of information from WM is often quite easy and automatic, yet how
easy and quickly it will be retrieved may depend upon how much is already stored there.
Retrieval of information from WM may sometimes be a process of scanning all the
contents of the WM, successively and exhaustively, until the desired information is
found.
iii.
Maintenance Rehearsal: repeating information to keep it alive in the WM. This usually
takes place in subvocal speech. Helps information from being lost to decay and
interfering. When rehearsal isn’t possible them information can be lost easily. There is
an upper limit to the amount of information that can be stored in one’s WM simply
through repetition, and this upper limit reflects how much can be repeated before some
of it starts to fade. (world length effect: being able to remember a greater number of
short items than longer ones)
Moving Information to Long-Term Memory: Connecting Information with Prior Knowledge
 Storage of information in LTM is not so easy. Think of the double arrows between WM
and LTM. Processing involves combining information already in LTM with new


information. Storage is most successful when it is related to something one already
knows. LTM happens slowly, and a great deal is lost in WM. WM is the bottle neck that
allows very little information into the bottle.
Long-term memory: the most complex component of the human memory system
Declarative knowledge: “how things are or were”
Procedural knowledge: “how to do things”
Characteristics of LTM:
1. Capacity: UNLIMITED. The more information that is already there, the easier
new information will be stored.
2. Forms of Storage: language, sensory information, nonverbal abstractions.
People rarely save information in precise ways they encountered it in the
environment. (explicit knowledge: easily recalled and explained part of LTM,
implicit knowledge: effects one behavior even though they cannot consciously
retrieve and inspect it) LTM is extremely interconnected, virtually all
information is connected directly or indirectly to every other piece of
information
3. Duration: some people believe it is forever if there is any thought that one has
forgotten something it is simply a retrieval problem. Others believe that
information can be lost through certain forgetting processes. Both groups agree
it is indefinitely long!!
Challenges to Dual Store Model
-
Not all people agree with it
Some psychologists don’t believe the three parts are distinctly different entities
Are Working and Long-term Memory Really Different?
-
Serial learning can be explained by single-store or dual-store model
Forms of encoding overlap whether LTM or WM
People who have undergone brain surgery can using one part of memory, but not the other;
there is lots of situations which support either dual-store or single-store
WM and LTM depend on different parts of the brain, but either way these parts might be in use
at the same time
Is conscious thought necessary for LTM storage?
-
-
-
WM is an active conscious mechanism. It would seem the learner would have to be actively
involved in storing anything into LTM. It’s not the case some things are automatically stored
whether one intended to or not. People automatically store location and frequency information
early in life.
The brain learns and stores stuff without us explicitly knowing it. One way is conscious and
active. Another way is thoughtless that occurs from stimulus-stimulus and stimulus-response
associations.
Thinking may sometimes occur outside of the WM. Instead of putting a complex problem into
the limelight it might need to be put into LTM where it can be thought of and processed for
awhile. Unconsciously one might solve this little by little. Sometimes we refer to this as intuition
or gut feeling when really we have unconsciously been working on it.
General Educational Implications of Cognitive Theories
1. People control their own learning: students must be mentally active in the classroom to learn.
The nature of their cognitive processes will determine what they learn and how effectively they
learn it. Those who do not attend to the subject or think about it will learn very little.
2. Memory is selective: students must select what to focus on and what to ignore, but remember
they’re not always going to be good at selecting the right things. Teachers must help students
sort through the essential and nonessential information.
3. Attention is Essential for Learning: helping students focus their attention on certain things is
the first step in helping them learn it. There are several strategies to help students pay
attention:
a) Include variety in topics and presentation styles:
b) Provide frequent breaks, especially with young children
c) Ask questions
d) Minimize Distractions when independent work is assigned
e) Seat students near the teacher if they have difficulty staying on tasks
f) Monitor students behaviors
4. People can process on a limited amount of information at a time: getting information into LTM
can take a long time. Teachers must plan their lessons and materials accordingly not to go so
fast that their students learn nothing at all.
5. The limited capacity of working memory is not necessarily a bad thing: the bottleneck forces
learners to condense, organize, and synthesize
Chapter 8: LTM I: Storage
Promoting Effective Storage Processes:
-
-
Expository instruction: information is presented essentially in the same form that students are
expected to learn it
Teacher-directed instruction: the teacher calls most of the shots, deciding which topics will be
addressed, and directing the course of the lesson
Learner-directed instruction: students have a considerable say in the issues they address and
how they address them
The lecture method has been criticized as being relatively ineffective, learning occurs more
effectively when students make active responses . Students can better understand ideas when
they have concrete first hand experiences with those ideas perhaps through discovery learning
Many cognitivists are still activists for teacher-directed learning, as long as it promotes effective
storage processes (learning classroom material must be done so in a meaningful fashion)
There are a number of processes that should guide meaningful learning no matter who directs
it:
a) Meaningful learning can occur only when students have prior knowledge to which
they can relate new ideas: material should overlap existing knowledge. Students need
appropriate background knowledge, or if they already have the knowledge they must be
made aware of it. Providing actual experiences can help children who have very little
knowledge on a new topic you are about to introduce. Create the experience and then
relate new concepts. Analogies ( the dual store model is like a bottle the neck is WM
and the thick part is LTM) are extremely effective (p.225). Prior knowledge activation:
some means of encouraging students to retrieve relevant knowledge from LTM to WM.
(provide a refresher, discuss topic before reading about it)
b) Students are more apt to engage in meaningful learning when they are explicitly
encouraged to do so: students must know that they can understand and make sense of
things. They need a meaningful learning set: the above combined with the right
attitude. E.g. students do better when they know they will not recite definitions
verbatim, and instead will explain concepts in their own words and examples. If the
subject has proven too hard in the past their attitude might be all wrong.
c) Students learn more effectively when a lesson begins with an advanced organizer: an
advanced organizer: is a general introduction to new material that is typically designed
to accomplish either or both of two purposes. (outlines, overviews, analogies, examples,
thought-provoking questions, diagrams )Expository organizer: rough overview or
outline of the material describing general topics that will be presented and their
relationship to one another. Comparative organizer: shows how the new material
relates to students’ previous experiences, to information they have previously learned
in school, or possibly to their own purpose of studying the material
d) Students often need guidance in determining what things are most important to learn:
 Internal organization – how various ideas within a body of new information are
interrelated (expository)
 External organization – how information is related to what students already
know (comparative)
 Signals—point to important information that can facilitate students learning
from expository forms of instructive
 Writing key points on the chalk board; underlining or italicizing important
phrases; specific instructional objectives; questions interspersed throughout a
lecture or a book
e) In as many ways as possible, students should interconnect the new ideas that they are
learning
 Present the ideas in a logical sequence, identify hierarchal relationships, make
cause and effect relationships clear
 Concept map or knowledge map: is a diagram of the concepts or main ideas of
a unit (often identified by circles) and the interrelationships among them (often
designated by lines and by words or phrases that link two concepts or ideas
together)
f) Generally speaking, students learn and remember new material more effectively
when they elaborate on it:
 Draw on inference from something that is not directly stated
 Applying scientific knowledge at home
 Students are more likely to remember classroom material if they apply it
outside of class
 Asking them to talk about a topic, forces them to do something with the
material
 Asking students to write about a topic enables them to pull their thought
together to resolve gaps in their understanding
 Having students tutor their classmates helps them achieve a higher level of
understanding
g) Visual aids enhance long term memory storage
 Physical objects, pictures, maps, diagrams, graphs, and live models
 Visual aids reduce the strain on working memory because they provide an
external means of storing information
 Visual aid should be simple, concise, clear, and colorful
A variety of instructional strategies promote acquisition of procedures
 Teachers can demonstrate a procedure or show pictures, verbalize their own
thoughts as they engage in a complex task, encourage students to use verbal
rehearsal, give students a chance to carry it out themselves, break complicated
things down into smaller tasks
h) Students learn new material more affectively when they have sufficient time to
process it well:
 Meaningful learning, internal organization, elaboration, and visual imagery
often take time, so give kids a second to think things through
i) End of lessons summaries promote learning and retention:
 Summaries help students review material, determine which ideas they have
studied are most important, and pull key ideas into a more cohesive
organizational structure.
j) Periodic review and practice enhances learning:
 Occasional repetition of learned information over a longer period of time does
enhance storage and retention
k) Learning quickly does not always mean learning better:
 How students learn is not an inclination to how well they learn it
 To truly master a topic students must relate to things they already know, for
many interconnections among its various parts, draw inferences about and in
other ways elaborate on it, and perhaps learn certain aspects of it to
automaticity
 It sometimes ok to make errors
Some final remarks about LTM storage
 LTM storage is idiosyncratic
 Any two people store different information from the same situation and for several reasons (3):
1. They attend to different aspects of the situation; therefore they put different things in their
working memory
2. They encode information in different ways (some are more visual; some are more language
based)
3. They bring their unique background experiences to the situation
 Storage of new information sometimes affects previously learned information as well
 Learners sometimes distort new material, yet other times they fix inaccurate material
 The ways in which people store new information affect both the nature of the knowledge they
possess and the ease with which they can retrieve that knowledge later on
o Explicit – clearly expressed and leaving nothing to implication
o Implicit - implied though not directly expressed; inherent in the nature of something
o Concept – classes of objects or events that share one or more common properties
Chapter 9: Long-Term Memory II: The Nature of Knowledge p.262-281
Schemas and Scripts





Schema – closely connected set of ideas (including concepts) related to a specific object
or event
o An office has a schema: an office has a desk, an office has a small cubicle space,
an office has bookshelves, an office has one or more chairs
o Schemas often influence how we perceive and remember new situations
o If you have a schema in mind of how you think an office will look it may change
or influence what you might think should be in another office
Scripts (event schemas)– people often form schemas about events as well as objects
o You read a passage about a girl going to school and taking a test. (Without the
passage saying it you know the girl probably got to the school somehow, took the
test in a classroom, and used a writing utensil)
o Just from going to school you know how to fill in details even though you never
even read those details. You already formed a schema about school to apply to the
situation.
Research shows that schemas and scripts influence how learners process, store, and
remember new information.
o I.e. Some people have formed schemas about how males and females should act.
These people find it easier to remember details from a movie where people act
gender stereotypical rather than counter-stereotypical. People have an easier time
remembering events similar to events in their own culture because such events are
recognizable in their scripts.
o I.e. Two people look at a big beautiful home inside and out. A burglar will be
looking at details and remembering things quite differently than a potential home
buyer will.
The human mind encounters more information than it can possibly handle
Schemas and scripts are a good way to handle information overload: they help us focus
on what is most important and ignore what is less important (i.e. when you go to the



doctor you will focus on checking in with the receptionists, yet ignore studying the
pictures on the walls)
Schemas help us make sense of incomplete information (this is why sometimes we fill in
information that was never even there; you’re using schemas and scripts you already
possess to fill in the blank)
Schemas and scripts usually relate to relatively specific events (they can be somewhat
vague and the cognitive processes involved are unclear)
Overall the appeal is seeing how we organize our experiences to predict or interpret our
future experiences
Personal Theories

Personal theories (aka General theories) – coherent belief systems that encompass
cause-effect relationships about the world around oneself (can be physical, biological,
social, political, or mental)
o Personal theories – are the same as the above and are differentiated from scientific
theories based on research evidence
o Theory theory – perspective of how people organize knowledge; theoretical
perspective about people’s everyday theories
o Concepts people form are influenced by the theories they have of how the world
operates
o Theories about the world emerge early in one’s life far before scientific theories are
ever encountered
o As human beings grow older and encounter many new experiences and gather more
information
o This information helps them expand and revise their own theories about the physical,
biological, and mental social aspects of humans
o Personal theories act as a guide as one encounters new concepts they are learning (the
location a horse is in is irrelevant to knowing what a horse is)( the location the
equator is in is relevant and essential to understanding its purpose)
o Personal theories help people organize and make sense of personal experiences
o Personal theory often helps us understand how some people misconstrue the world
around them
Personal Theories vs. Reality

Some ways of understanding the world are more useful than others: they align
themselves fairly closely with our day-to-day observations, and they enable us to make
predictions about future events with considerable accuracy
Personal theory
Reality
o Children’s personal theories
o Expert theories well-defined and
inconsistent
particular
o Japanese children believe plants have
o Science finds no proof to back plants
minds
having minds
o Adults often have inconsistent
o Scientifically acceptable understandings
understandings as well
o Reality - the state of the world as it
o People have erroneous notions based
really is rather than as you might want it
on how things seem to appear
to be (persona
o We often infer incorrect cause-effect
relationships due to timing
o Television, fairy tales, and cartoons can
add to misconceptions
o Fewer misunderstandings = easier acquisition of sophisticated theories
o Deep-rooted misconceptions = difficulty in acquiring acceptable scientific theories
Fostering Theory Development





Theories are integrated bodies of knowledge (long-term memory storage processes
enhance theory integration)
Meaningful learning, internal organization, and elaboration enrich theories
Physical models help learners tie ideas together – mental models – representations of
how principles and concepts interrelate or how a specific system works (reflect the
structure of external reality)
o Diagram of how pulley’s lift a heavy object
o 3D double helix that shows structure of DNA
Group interaction enhances learners’ theoretical understanding- discussing phenomenon
increases learning, exchanging perspectives expands understanding, and building on
other’s ideas helps learning.
Personal theories and mental models can be helpful even when they’re partly inaccuratecan help us predict phenomenon even if it’s not exactly what experts believe to be “true”
o Some don’t believe dual-store model (working and long-term memory separate
entities) yet the model is still useful in helping us predict how students and
learners perform in class situations.
o BEWARE the theories and models can have slight differences, but significant
differences can wreak havoc on learning.
Worldviews




Worldview- general set of beliefs and assumptions about reality – and “how things
should be”- that influence understandings of a wide variety of phenomenon
These ideas, beliefs, and assumptions are culturally transmitted and altered through dayto-day adult interaction
These are taken for granted assumptions that most people aren’t consciously aware of
The following are worldview examples:
 Life and the universe came into being through random acts of nature or as a part
of a divine plan or purpose
 Objects in nature (rocks or trees) have some degree of consciousness or are
incapable of conscious thought
 Humans are at the mercy of nature/ humans must learn to live in harmony with
nature


 People’s success and failures in life are a result of their own actions or divine
intervention or fate or random occurrences
Worldviews are often implicit knowledge that influence learners’ interpretations of
everyday life:
 A major hurricane occurs in South Florida (some students think it happened because
of supernatural events; others think it was a natural occurring event)
 White Americans look at history as a pivotal era leading up to freedom and
democracy; African Americans look at history as a process of oppression and
suffering
 When high school prayer is banned some students look at is as freedom from
religious oppression, yet others look at it as the abandonment of the country’s
religious heritage
Sometimes certain worldviews are brought into the classroom and must be
accommodated with; or else these worldviews will impeded with learning important
classroom subject matter
The Challenge of Conceptual Change
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


Conceptual change – the process of replacing one personal theory or belief system with
another presumably more adaptive one
Conceptual doesn’t refer to one concept alone necessarily, but instead refers to an
interrelated set of ideas
Research shows that many children have misconceptions and counterproductive beliefs
about the world around them even after considerable instruction is given to counteract
these beliefs
The following are reasons learners hold onto their counterproductive beliefs:
1. Existing beliefs affect interpretations of new information – learners are more
likely to interpret new information in ways that are consistent with what they
already know. Most humans have a “default” mode in that they maintain existing
perspectives, rather than considering alternative ones
2. Most people have a confirmation bias – confirmation bias – looking for
information that confirms one’s existing beliefs, while simultaneously ignoring
contradictory evidence.
3. People’s existing beliefs are often consistent with their everyday experiencestruly accurate physical phenomenon like principles of physics are often fairly
abstract and hard to relate to everyday reality. (Law of inertia, and Newton’s
second law) difficult to relate to everyday observation. Physic doesn’t seem to be
consistent to things we have already learned. (“I’m pushing something with a
consistent force, and I see it moving, yet it’s not acceleration”)
4. Some erroneous beliefs are integrated into a cohesive whole; with many
interrelationships existing among various ideas- sometimes changing
misconceptions involves changing an entire body of knowledge, rather than a
single worldview. The “earth-centered” view is easier and neater to understand
then seeing it in reality.
5. People may fail to see an inconsistency between new information and their prior
beliefs- some people learn new information while still holding onto their old
beliefs. Both ideas are simultaneously stored into long-term memory. The new
information is learned at a rote level – meaning it is not connected to anything
else they have already learned. People don’t realize the new information is
inconsistent or contradictory with information they have already learned and
accepted as true.
6. People may have a personal or emotional investment in their existing beliefs“That theory is what I believe in and Nothing can change that” maybe their
beliefs are part of their religion or culture. People sometimes interpret challenges
to their belief system as a threat to their self-efficacy or self-esteem.
7. Sometimes people’s existing beliefs are supported by their social environment –
some learner’s have a support network: family, peers, religion, or politics that
give the learner a reason not to want to abandon existing beliefs. This happens
everywhere even in higher learning (Think of how behaviorists denied thinking).
Promoting Conceptual Change

When students have naïve beliefs and misconceptions about a topic; then helping them
master more scientific beliefs is apt to be more difficult
 It becomes difficult in that one must not only learn new things, but must also unlearn or
inhibit existing beliefs
 The teacher has an important role, but the learner is ultimately in charge of enabling
themselves to acquire more accurate understanding of topics. Their effort is the key
element in their ability to revise their thinking about a classroom subject matter.
 The following are suggestions on how to be on the way to conceptual change:
i.
Teacher must establish what beliefs and misconceptions already exist: the teacher
might need to do some probing through an informal questionnaire or formal pretest in
order to get the student’s current views. As a teacher gains experience with teaching a
subject they often gain insight into common misconceptions that learners have.
ii.
Students should learn correct information in a meaningful way rather than in a rote
fashion: students cannot access differences unless they can see the difference in their
new and old beliefs. The students need to approach the data in depth – the need to
understand their misconceptions in light of the new data. The student must be actively
engaged. Instruction should cover a few key ideas in depth rather than a broad topic
superficially.
iii. Students are more apt to change their current way of thinking when they believe
revision is in order- When learners encounter information that blatantly contradicts
what they already know. There needs to be a wide variety of methods to promote
conceptual change.
iv.
v.
vi.
o Disequilibrium or cognitive dissonance – sense of mental discomfort when a
learner encounters contradictory information to their beliefs
o Teachers can do many things to cause disequilibrium, and then encourage the
student to address it:
a) Ask questions to challenge current beliefs
b) Present phenomenon that they can’t explain with their existing beliefs
c) Ask students to make predictions in various situations
d) Encourage students to conduct experiments to test certain hypotheses
e) Ask students to provide possible explanations for puzzling phenomenon
f) Engage students in pros and cons discussions
g) Make them show how one explanation or event makes more sense than
others
Students must explicitly compare their existing beliefs with alternative explanations:
students should be thinking about both beliefs at the same time. Refutational text –
presents possible objections to certain explanations, but then later discredits them.
This helps them buy into preferred explanations while simultaneously avoiding
acceptance of counterarguments.
Students must want to learn the correct explanation – students must be motivated,
interested, and have high self-efficacy. The classroom should be socially and
emotionally supportive. The new information should not threaten the self-esteem of
the student. The student must be able to express themselves without ridicule, and
must understand that the goal of lesson is to bring about understanding rather than
just learning it for a test. Sometimes it is better to go for students understanding
concepts rather than trying to make them believe it or accept it. It is probably best to
give students a reason behind something, plus the pros and cons of this something. It
is up to the learner to decide their belief based on their moral and religious standpoint.
Students’ understanding should be monitored for tenacious misconceptions
throughout a lesson: some misconceptions are blatant, and others are just sort of
wrong. Teachers can bring out correct understanding by deeper and deeper
questioning. Assessment after a lesson is important as well. Asking a student to use
and then apply what they have learned may reveal misconceptions they have.
Memorizing facts, definitions, and formulas may not bring about a full understanding.
Development of Expertise


Some people become experts in a field. To be an expert doesn’t just mean you know
more than your peers about a subject. Their knowledge is tightly organized, and can be
interrelated to other abstract generalizations to eventually unify more concrete details.
Experts can retrieve information more easily, find parallels between diverse situations,
and solve problems more effectively and creatively.
3 stages in the development of knowledge:
1. Acclimation – familiarizing oneself with a new domain. Like an introduction to a
subject. It is fragmented learning where one picks up lots of facts, but stores them
in relative isolation from one another. This is where many misconceptions
sometimes form.
2. Competence – stage where one acquires considerable more knowledge on the
topic, and then adds into it some principles. One begins interrelate a lot of what
they have learned and starts to eliminate misconceptions. At this point one is
studying the subject at depth, critically thinking, and engaging with the subject.
3. Expertise – this person has mastered their subject and pulled it all together in an
integrated whole. They are conducting research, proposing new ways of looking
at things, solving problems, and creating new knowledge. Few learners ever
reach this stage, and it takes many years to get there.
o If any misconceptions still exist at the competence or expertise stage they’re
very resistant to change. Paradigm shifts in scientific communities take
decades to occur.
o Expertise cannot occur without an extreme interest in the subject, as well as
effective learning strategies.
Generalizations about the Nature of Knowledge
a. There can be considerable redundancy in how information is stored: there is
plenty of storage in long-term space, so we tend to store the same piece of
knowledge in many different ways. (A collie is a mammal, and a collie is a dog)
We also sometimes encode things in the form of words and pictures. Sometimes a
picture can depict things easier than words can and vice versa.
b. Most of our knowledge is a summary our experiences rather than information
about specific events: most of our knowledge is semantic rather than episodic. We
combine many specific experiences into a bulk of knowledge. Concepts are good
examples of how we summarize, and have many advantages:
1. Concepts reduce the world’s complexity: makes life simpler and easier to
understand.
2. Concepts allow abstraction of the environment: concepts and their labels
allow individuals to think about their experiences (a cow: supplier of milk,
ground beef, and economic asset.
3. Concepts enhance the power of thought: when you think of cow it might
also help you think about dog, horse, goat, and pig all at the same time.
4. Concepts facilitate inferences and generalizations to new situations: we
associate characteristics with concepts we learn. When we encounter new
instances of the concept, we can draw on our knowledge of associated
characteristics to make assumptions and inferences about the new
instance. Concepts make it so we don’t have to learn from scratch every
time. (If we get a plant we know we need to water it because we’ve
already learned plants need water to grow)
5. Concepts make it easier for us to make connections among the things we
know: helps us make associations among concepts in long-term memory.
(cow relates to bull and calf in a familial way)
o We must not be hasty and lose sight of new stimulus by grouping it too
quickly, and not identifying its unique qualities
o We must not over-classify experiences either as in stereotypes- (like
gender, class, or race) we might draw incorrect inferences about a
group of people
c. Most times integrated is more useful than fragmented knowledge: when we
integrate our knowledge we can often take it beyond specific things we have
learned. Organized information is easier to remember and retrieve than
unorganized information. Integrated knowledge includes principles and causeand-effect relationships. Having integrated knowledge makes it easier for seeing
when solutions are incorrect.
d. In-depth study is more beneficial than superficial study: schools build basic
knowledge of multiple subjects so children can participate more fully in society.
Unfortunately learning small little integrated parts doesn’t build that knowledge
fully. Lately more people are advocating a less is more approach where students
learn fewer subjects, yet study it more in-depth.
Chapter 10: Long-Term Memory III: Retrieval and Forgetting p. 287-293
Construction and Retrieval
o Long-term memory retrieval may involve constructive processes
o People only retrieve a portion of the information that contains holes; these holes are often
filled in with logic they already possess
o The knowledge they possess is consistent with their existing beliefs about themselves and
the world around them
o Construction occurs in verbal or nonverbal material
o Constructive retrieval of nonverbal material happens in recall of witnessing a crime:
testimony is sometime inaccurate, stories differ from eyewitness to eyewitness, the
knowledge varies due to prior knowledge of the individuals involved, expectations of
what typically happens in a situation, and information presented at a later time
o Think about 911 you know where you were and when you hear it, but beside that it’s hard
to recall little else unless you videotape it
o Flashbulb memories – memories of experiencing or hearing about significant and often
emotion laden events are often quite vivid, detailed ones that seem to be like a snapshot
in our mind
o Constructive processes can be helpful, and inaccurate, but when our memory of an event
is incomplete they can really help to fill in the wholes
The Power of Suggestion: Effects of Subsequently Presented
Information
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Recollection is not only influenced by prior knowledge, but can be influenced by
knowledge acquired sometime after
Generally speaking this is good at times (updating knowledge), but can be detrimental
to eyewitness testimony
i.e. Speed of car increased as descriptor did: contacted, hit, bumped, collided,
smashed
the speed increased as the severity of the descriptor increased
suggestive remarks can lead to inaccurate testimony (especially in young children)
misinformation effect: people’s memory for an event becomes distorted when they
subsequently receive inaccurate information about the event
people integrate previous knowledge with misinformation to reconstruct what must of
happened
Constructing Entirely New Memories
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sometimes people are asked to recall information
they never even knew; in this case retrieval is entirely constructed
construction helps us produce information
beyond what we store
children readily knew: (2X3=6 or 2X4=8), yet
they had to retrieve the zero rule to answer (2X0=0) so it tong longer
false memories – new memories have little or no
basis in fact because they were based on things that were never experienced
asking someone to picture an imaginary object or
situation may increase the likelihood they remember experiencing it later
young children often think they experience
things they never did (distinguishing fantasy from fact)
false memories are common when stimuli might
reasonably or logically have been encountered
in word lists like Rob and other students did it is
not uncommon to remember words that were never there perhaps the words were similar
and came from previous stored knowledge
Remembering Earlier Recollections
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recalling events that has happened to us often
affects our later memory for the event, especially when we verbally describe the event
narratives – verbal description of an event; a
message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events
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when we are young they are very rudimentary
(being or involving basic facts or principles), but as we grow older they enhance detail
and completeness
when parents encourage enhancing memories
they may become more elaborate and increase memory in time
Self-Monitoring During Retrieval
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self-monitoring- observing and assessing one’s
own behavior (this can also occur in a more cognitive sense)
that is, one reflects on their recollections in an
effort to determine whether they are remembering something accurately or
inaccurately
we believe things are more accurate when they
are vivid or “jump-out” at us
we believe things are more accurate if they are
consistent with what we know about ourselves and the world in general
if something is more hazy we may believe it was
made up (even if it really did happen)
we improve on self-monitoring as we go through
the course of childhood
one thing that is more difficult though is sourcemonitoring – remember when or where a memory actually came into being
faulty source-monitoring is often at the root of
people’s false memories of things they have often imagined rather than experienced
poor source-monitoring often leads to
unintentional plagiarism of others materials
Important Cautions in Probing People’s Memories
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teachers, clinicians, law enforcement officers,
attorneys, and other professions depend heavily on probing people’s memories,
but one must be cautious in the constructive nature of memory
sometimes distortions are a result of the kinds of
questions and feedback that a professional presents
Leading questions: Where were you on the soand-so attacked you? (implies that an attack did indeed occur and so-an-so was
the perpetrator) these questions should be avoided at all costs when the details of
the event are largely unknown
Better questions: What did you see? What
happened next?
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Refrain from repeatedly asking the same
questions, and insisting that people provide speculative answers to questions to
which they’re unsure of
Don’t imply certain answers are correct or in
some other way acceptable
It is more likely that people cannot retrieve
something that they did not experience, than it is that they remember something
they never experienced