Educational Psychology | Part 3: Thinking, Learning, and Memory | Chapter 8: Cognitive Approaches to Learning
1. Cognitive Approaches - Theories that emphasize the mental mechanisms underlying the processing and
representation of information during learning.
2. Memory - Active mental mechanisms that enable people to retain and retrieve information about past
experience.
3. Why Understanding Cognitive Approaches to Learning Is Important to Teachers
4. The Standard Memory Model
A. Most of these models have in common 3 basic operations: encoding, storage, and retrieval
1. Encoding refers to how you transform a sensory input into some kind of representation that you can
place into memory.
2. Storage refers to how you retain encoded information in memory.
3. Retrieval -Gaining access to information stored in memory; one of three basic memory operations.
B. Encoding Knowledge into 3 Memory Stores
1. Sensory Register - According to the standard model of memory, where much information is first
stored when it is sensed. It is capable of holding relatively small amounts of information for brief
moments of time.
2. Short-Term Memory -According to the standard model of memory, the second store of memory,
which is capable of holding relatively limited amounts of information for a matter of seconds, and , in
some instances, up to 2 minutes.
3. Long-Term Memory - According to the standard model of memory, the third store of memory, which
has a very large, possibly unlimited capacity; it is capable of storing information for very long periods
of time, possibly indefinitely.
4. Figure 8.1 Characteristics of Three Memory Stores in the Standard Memory model
a.
5. The Sensory Register
6. Short-Term Memory
a. Rehearsal - Repeated recitation of an item.
b. Metamemory - Knowledge and control of one's own memory.
c. Chunking - Grouping items of information so as to expand the amount of information that can
be stored in short-tem memory.
7. Long Term Memory
a. Total-Time hypothesis - Principle of learning suggesting that how much you learn studying in a
single session depends on how much time you spend studying.
b. Elaborate - To learn by thinking carefully about information and associating it with other known
information.
c. Maintenance Rehearsal - (Rote Learning) Learning strategy that involves learning and
memorizing new information by simply repeating it.
d. Elaborative Rehearsal - Learning strategy in which the person thinks carefully about new
information, associating it with information already learned or associating various items of the
to-be-learned information.
e. Table 8.1 The Three Memory Stores of the Standard Model
Name
Type of
Information
Stored
Amount of Information
Stored
How Long
Memories
Last
Examples
Educational Psychology | Part 3: Thinking, Learning, and Memory | Chapter 8: Cognitive Approaches to Learning
Sensory
Register
Visual (and
possibly
auditory)
About 9 items
Up to 1
second
Short-Term
memory
Information that 5 to 9 items; storage can Up to 1
is being currently be increased by chunking minute
used
information into groups without
rehearsal
A telephone number; a list of
vocabulary words
Long-Term
Memory
Information that Possibly unlimited
has been learned
or encoded for
long-term
storage
The square root of 144 is 12; the
name of your favorite candy bar;
how to open you bicycle lock
Possibly for
life
The image left after "writing"
name with a sparkler, or after a
teacher turns off an overhead
projector
A. Rote Learning - Learning by repetition with little or no attempt to add to or find meaning in the
information.
B. Distributed Learning - Learning done over several sessions spaced out over time.
C. Massed Learning - Learning that is crammed, occurring all at one time.
A. Types of Storage in Long-Term Memory
1. Table 8.2 Types of Knowledge Stored in Long-Term Memory
Declarative ("Knowing That")
Procedural
("Knowing How"
Conditional ("Knowing
Why" or "Knowing
When")
Type of
memory
used for
storing it
Semantic memory: widely known facts;
Episodic memory: personal experiences
Procedural
memory: ways to
do things
Conditional memory:
involves knowing when
and how to apply to
declarative and procedural
knowledge you have
Form in
which it is
stored
Hierarchies or other organized networks of
representations, either:
Analogical (images) or Symbolic
(propositions)
Ordered
sequences of
productions
(condition-action
sequences)
Cognitive strategies:
information about the
conditions under which
certain declarative or
procedural knowledge is
useful
Examples
Knowing what you did with your best friend
yesterday (episodic), or planning for your
best friend's birthday (semantic); can be
stored as a mental picture of you and your
friend at the movies (analogical
representation), or as a set of propositions
to indicate the birthday (propositional
representation)
Knowing how to
ride a bicycle or
write a research
paper
Knowing when to stop
doing research for a
research paper
A. Mental Representations - Ways in which knowledge is stored in memory.
B. Declarative Knowledge
1. Declarative Knowledge - Knowledge of facts stored in semantic or episodic memory. It is
sometimes described as "knowing that"
2. Semantic Memory - Long-term memory store holding general knowledge of the world.
3. Episodic Memory - Long-term memories holding personally experienced events or episodes.
Educational Psychology | Part 3: Thinking, Learning, and Memory | Chapter 8: Cognitive Approaches to Learning
4. Analogical Representations - Declarative memories that preserve many aspects of the original
stimulus.
5. Symbolic Representations - Declarative memories that rely on arbitrary symbols that may bear
no obvious relation to whatever it is being represented.
6. Propositional Networks - Schematic integration of interrelated propositions.
7. Figure 8.2 A Propositional Network
a.
8. Figure 8.3 Feature Model of Semantic Memory
C. Procedural Knowledge
1. Procedural Knowledge - Knowledge of how to do certain things; "knowing how"
2. Productions (Condition-Action Sequences) - Way of storing procedural knowledge in memory as
condition-action sequences that tell us, "if this, then do that"
D. Conditional Knowledge
1. Conditional Knowledge - Knowledge of when and how to apply the declarative and procedural
knowledge you have.
Implications for Teaching
The Three Memory Stores
Teachers can help students move information from the sensory register through short-term memory and
into long-term memory. Some of the ways in which expert teachers use the standard model of memory
to help students learn more effectively include the following:
A. Get students' attention. The standard memory model emphasizes getting students' attention.
Attention is a prerequisite for information in the sensory register to be transferred to short-term
memory, where it will be processed further. A creative way of getting your students' attention is to
use large, colorful visual aids to accompany the key points of a presentation. Identify critical concepts
and information, and repeat them to emphasize their importance.
B. Help students develop metamemory. Teach students techniques such as chunking information (for
example, French words by topic). Demonstrate the techniques in class. Model them yourself. Help
students identify which memory strategies work best for them. For example, suppose the class is
quizzed on key terms every week. Then for several weeks a teacher could prescribe a different
memory strategy each week. After this trial period, the teacher could ask students to indicate their
preferred strategies. The students also should explain why they believed these strategies worked.
3. Allow time for rehearsal
Educational Psychology | Part 3: Thinking, Learning, and Memory | Chapter 8: Cognitive Approaches to Learning
4. Help students elaborate.
5. Schedule frequent practices of new information.
Long-Term Memory
1. Arrange memorable learning experiences.
2. Use pictures.
3. Organize information.
4. Teach conditional knowledge.
5. Encourage "learning by doing"
A. Explicit Versus Implicit Memory
1. Implicit Memory - A type of memory in which an individual recalls or recognizes information without
consciously being aware of doing so.
2. In explicit memory, an individual consciously acts to recall or recognize particular information
5. Alternative Models of Memory
A. Connectionist Models
1. Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) Model - (AKA connectionist model)Model of memory that
focuses on the ways declarative and procedural knowledge are combined via series of connections
among elements.
2. Spreading Activation - According to the connectionist model of memory, a phenomenon whereby
activation of one node may prompt activation of another, connected node.
3. Figure 8.4 A Connectionist Model of memory
B. The Working-memory Model
1. Working Memory -According to the working model of memory, an active part of long-term memory
that also includes temporary, or short-term memory.
2. Figure 8.5 The Working-Memory Model
3. Table 8.3 Standard Memory Model Versus Working-Memory Model
Terminology
Standard Memory Model
Working-Memory Model
Short-term memory is sometimes
called working memory, but it is
distinct from long-term memory
Working memory includes both short-term
memory and long-term memory
Relationship of Short-term memory is distinct from
Memory
long-term memory, although
Stores
information may move between the
2 stores
Key Emphasis
of Model
Short-term memory is not entirely distinct form
long-term memory; rather, it is a part of working
memory along with whatever information in longterm memory is currently activated
On the distinctions between different On the role of activation in moving information
memory stores
into working memory and on the errors of working
memory in memory processes
A. The Levels-of-Processing Model
1. Levels-of-Processing Model - Model of memory in which storage is seen as varying along a continuous
dimension in terms of depth of encoding. It suggests that the deeper the level at which an item is
processed, the higher the probability that the item will be retrieved alter.
2. Figure 8.6 The Levels-of-Processing Model
Educational Psychology | Part 3: Thinking, Learning, and Memory | Chapter 8: Cognitive Approaches to Learning
a.
3. Self-reference Effect - Effect whereby people show very high levels of recall when asked to relate
words meaningfully to themselves by determining when the words describe themselves.
Implications for Teaching
A. Use the ideas of priming and spreading activation to help students learn. For example, a teacher
may review subtraction and multiplication as a way of priming students before teaching division.
B. Help students encode information at the deepest level possible. Expert teachers know that making
ideas meaningful for students is the best way to help the students learn.
6. Retrieving Information
A. Tasks Used to Assess Students' Memories
1. Recall Tasks
a. Recall Task - Memory task that requires a person to produce information from memory.
b. Free Recall - Type of memory test in which a person must recite back a list of learned items, in
any order.
c. Serial Recall - Type of memory procedure in which a person must recite back a list of learned
items, in the same order that the items were originally presented.
d. Paired-Associates Recall - Type of memory procedure in which a person learns pairs of words.
When one word in the pair is presented, the person must respond with the correct matching
word.
2. Recognition Tasks
a. Recognition Task - Memory test that requires a person to select or identify something he or she
has learned previously.
B. Facilitating Students' Retrieval
1. Retrieval Cues
a. Retrieval Cues - Clues or reminders that can enhance the ability to retrieve stored information
from memory.
b. Advance Organizer - Way of organizing information to be learned to enhance learning.
c. Encoding Specificity - Principle of memory suggesting that the context in which something is
encoded substantially affects how well that something is later retrieved.
2. Mnemonists and Mnemonic Devices
a. Mnemonic Devices - Specific techniques for improving learning and memory.
b. Categorical Clustering
c. Interactive Images
d. Pegwords
e. Method of Loci
f. Acronyms
g. Acrostics
h. Keywords
i. PQ4R - Mnemonic device for the steps in a study method: Preview, Question, Read, Reflect,
Recite, and Review.
Educational Psychology | Part 3: Thinking, Learning, and Memory | Chapter 8: Cognitive Approaches to Learning
3. Flashbulb Memories
C. Retrieval Failure
1. Decay Theory - Theory of memory suggesting that information is forgotten because of the gradual
disappearance over time of an unused memory trace.
2. Interference Theory - Theory suggesting that forgetting is caused by competing information that
renders the sought-after information inaccessible.
3. Retroactive Interference (AKA Retroactive Inhibition) - Forgetting caused by activity that occurs after
something is learned.
4. Proactive interference (AKA Proactive Inhibition) - Forgetting caused by activity that occurs before
something is learned.
5. Serial-Position Curve
6. Figure 8.8 The Serial-Position curve
a.
D. Biology of Memory
7. Constructivist Approaches
A. Constructivist Approaches - Approach to learning based on the idea that children actively build their own
knowledge. It suggests that prior experience and the context of learning affect how we encode memories,
how we recall, and what we recall.
B. Constructivist Approaches to Memory
1. Schemas
a. Schemas - Cognitive frameworks for organizing associated concepts.
2. Autobiographical Memory
3. Memory Distortions
a. Transience
b. Absent-Mindedness
c. Blocking
d. Misattribution
e. Suggestibility
f. Bias
g. Persistence
4. Eyewitness Testimony
a. Unreliable, we fill in the gaps
5. Children's Memories
6. Scripts
Educational Psychology | Part 3: Thinking, Learning, and Memory | Chapter 8: Cognitive Approaches to Learning
a. Scripts - Stereotypical story outline for how events typically proceed.
C. Constructivist Approaches to Learning
1. Situated Learning
2. Enculturation
3. PIFS (Practical Intelligence for School) has 5 key components:
a. Knowing Why
b. Knowing Self
c. Knowing Differences
d. Knowing Process
e. Reworking
4. Table 8.4 Kinds of Memory
Kind of
Memory
Definition
Episodic
Encoding storage and retrieval of events or episodes that the rememberer experienced
personally at a particular point in time
Semantic
Encoding, storage, and retrieval of facts that do not describe the unique experiences of the
individual recalling the facts, and that are not characterized by any particular temporal
context in which the individual acquired the facts.
Declarative
A recognition and understanding of factual information ("knowing that")
Procedural
A recognition and awareness of how to perform particular tasks, skills or procedures
("knowing how")
Recall
A process of memory often used in memory tasks, in which the individual is asked to
produce (not just to recognize as correct) a fact, word, or another item from memory.
Recognition
A process of memory often used in memory tasks, in which the individual is asked just to
recognize as correct (not to produce) a fact, a word, or another item from memory.