Cognitivism
Last Week: Behaviourism
Cognitivism
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The cognitivist revolution
replaced behaviourism in
1960s/1970s as the dominant
paradigm.
We recall Chomsky's argument
that language could not be
acquired purely through
conditioning (even though
radical behaviourists never
argued that), and must be at
least partly explained by the
existence of internal mental
states.
Cognitivism
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Cognitivism argues that the “black box” of the
mind should be opened and understood.
The learner is viewed as an information
processor.
…or a computer
Cognitivism
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Mental processes such as thinking, memory,
knowing, and problem-solving need to be
explored.
Knowledge can be seen as schema or
symbolic mental constructions.
Learning is defined as change in a learner’s
schemata.
SHOCK – HORROR - DISMAY


There is a great deal of ambiguity in the
education literature as to what constitutes
Cognitivism, and how it different from
Constructivism
What follows is my take on things…
SHOCK – HORROR - DISMAY


There is a great deal of ambiguity in the
education literature as to what constitutes
Cognitivism, and how it different from
Constructivism
What follows is my take on things…
Proto-Cognitivism
Cognitivism
Cognitive
Constructivism
Constructivism
Proto-Cognitivism:
Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt Psychology

Gestalt - "essence or shape of an entity's
complete form"

"The whole is greater than the sum of the
parts" is often used when explaining Gestalt
theory.
Gestalt Psychology

But it is better stated that the qualities of the
whole have additional qualities that that parts
do not have, e.g. the four lines on the right
have the additional quality of “squareness”
that the lines on the left do not.
Gestalt Psychology

Gestaltists see objects as perceived
within an environment according to all of
their elements taken together as a global
construct.
Max Wertheimer
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Born April 15, 1880
Died Oct 12, 1943
Born in Prague, Czech
Republic
Psychologist
Father of Gestalt
psychology
Inspiration
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In 1910 he bought a toy
stroboscope
He saw two separate and
alternating light patterns
He discovered that if the
spacing, on-time, and offtime were just right for
these lights, his mind would
perceive the dual lights as
one single flashing light
moving back and forth
Phi phenomenon
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a perceptual illusion in
which a perception of
motion is produced by a
succession of still
images.
Lead to important
questions about how
perception and the
brain works.
Kurt Koffka
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Born March 18, 1886
Died Nov 22, 1941
Born in Berlin,
Germany
Psychologist
Another of the founders
of Gestalt psychology
Learning theorist
Theories on learning

Koffka believed that most of early learning is what
he referred to as, "sensorimotor learning," which is a
type of learning which occurs after a consequence.
For example, a child who touches a hot stove will
learn not to touch it again.
Theories on learning

Koffka also believed that a lot of learning occurs by
imitation, though he argued that it is not important to
understand how imitation works, but rather to
acknowledge that it is a natural occurrence.

According to Koffka, the highest type of learning is
“ideational learning”, which makes use of language.
Wolfgang Köhler
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Born in Jan 21, 1887
Died in June 11, 1967
Born in Reval (now
Tallinn), Estonia
Psychologist and
phenomenologist
Another of the founders
of Gestalt psychology
Problem solving
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In 1913, Köhler went to the
island of Tenerife in the
Canary Islands for six years
Köhler observed the manner in
which chimpanzees solve
problems, such as that of
retrieving bananas when
positioned out of reach. He
found that they stacked
wooden crates to use as
makeshift ladders, in order to
retrieve the food.
If the bananas were placed on
the ground outside of the cage,
they used sticks to lengthen
the reach of their arms.
Problem solving

Köhler concluded that the chimps
had not arrived at these methods
through trial-and-error (which
American psychologist Edward
Thorndike had claimed to be the
basis of all animal learning,
through his law of effect), but
rather that they had experienced
an insight (also sometimes known
as an “aha experience”), in which,
having realized the answer, they
then proceeded to carry it out in a
way that was, in Köhler’s words,
“unwaveringly purposeful”.
The bouba/kiki effect
The bouba/kiki effect

The Bouba/Kiki Effect
was first observed by
German-American
psychologist
Wolfgang Köhler in
1929.
The bouba/kiki effect
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In psychological experiments, first conducted on
the island of Tenerife (in which the primary
language is Spanish), Köhler showed forms in
the previous slides asked participants which
shape was called "takete" and which was called
"baluba" ("maluma" in the 1947 version). Data
suggested a strong preference to pair the jagged
shape with "takete" and the rounded shape with
"baluba".
The bouba/kiki effect
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In 2001, Vilayanur S. Ramachandran and
Edward Hubbard repeated Köhler's experiment
using the words "kiki" and "bouba" and asked
American college undergraduates and Tamil
speakers in India “Which of these shapes is
bouba and which is kiki?”
In both the English and the Tamil speakers, 95%
to 98% selected the curvy shape as "bouba" and
the jagged one as "kiki", suggesting that the
human brain is somehow able to extract abstract
properties from the shapes and sounds.
The bouba/kiki effect

Recent work by Daphne Maurer and colleagues
has shown that even children as young as 2.5
(too young to read) show this effect.
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Ramachandran and Hubbard suggest that the
kiki/bouba effect has implications for the
evolution of language, because it suggests that
the naming of objects is not completely arbitrary.
The bouba/kiki effect
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The rounded shape may most commonly be
named "bouba" because the mouth makes a
more rounded shape to produce that sound
while a more taut, angular mouth shape is
needed to make the sound "kiki".

The sounds of a K are harder and more forceful
than those of a B, as well.
The bouba/kiki effect
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The presence of these "synesthesia-like
mappings" suggest that this effect might be the
neurological basis for sound symbolism, in
which sounds are non-arbitrarily mapped to
objects and events in the world.
The bouba/kiki effect
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Individuals with autism do not show as strong a
preference. Where average people agree with
the typical result 90% of the time, individuals
with autism only agree 60% of the time
(Ramachandran, V.S., Oberman, L.M. Evidence
for Deficits in Mirror Neuron Function,
Multisensory Integration, and Sound-form
Symbolism in Autism Spectrum Disorders)
Main principles
of Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt Principles
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Emergence
Reification
Multistability
Invariance
Prägnanz
Principle of Emergence
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Objects in an images are not recognised by
their component parts, but are rather
perceived as a whole, all at once.
Principle of Emergence
Principle of Emergence
Principle of Emergence
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The dog is not recognized by first identifying
its parts (feet, ears, nose, tail, etc.), and then
inferring the dog from those component parts.
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Instead, the dog is perceived as a whole, all
at once.
Principle of Reification
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the experienced percept contains more
explicit spatial information than the sensory
stimulus on which it is based.
Principle of Reification
Principle of Multistability
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the tendency of ambiguous perceptual
experiences to pop back and forth unstably
between two or more alternative
interpretations.
Principle of Multistability
Principle of Multistability
Principle of Multistability
Principle of Multistability
Principle of Multistability
Principle of Invariance

the property of perception whereby simple
geometrical objects are recognized
independent of rotation, translation, and
scale; as well as several other variations
such as elastic deformations, different
lighting, and different component features.
Principle of Invariance
Principle of Prägnanz
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we tend to order our experience in a manner
that is regular, orderly, symmetric, and
simple.
This results in other more basic laws
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Law of Closure
Law of Similarity
Law of Proximity
Law of Continuity
Law of Common Fate
Law of Closure
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The mind may experience elements it does not
perceive through sensation, in order to complete
a regular figure (that is, to increase regularity).
Law of Similarity
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The mind groups similar elements into
collective entities or totalities. This similarity
might depend on relationships of form,
colour, size, or brightness.
Law of Proximity
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Spatial or temporal proximity of elements may
induce the mind to perceive a collective or totality.
Law of Symmetry
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Symmetrical images are perceived
collectively, even in spite of distance.
Law of Continuity
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The mind continues visual, auditory, and kinetic
patterns.
Law of Common Fate
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Elements with the same moving direction are
perceived as a collective or unit.
An Investigation of the spatial perception of
time multiplexing during the simulation of
motion of objects
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The project investigated the
physiology and psychology of
visual perception, and attempted
to explain the illusion in those
terms.
The psychology investigation
centred on Gestalt Psychology
and how the principles in Gestalt
psychology co-operate to cause
the formation of illusory
contours.
I designed an LED Array system
whose display characteristics
could be varied in software to
assist in supporting the
proposed theory.
In addition the research appears
to have found a way of
measuring the persistence of
vision of illusory contours for
very short periods of time.
Cognitivism:
Instructional Design
Kurt Lewin
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Born Sept 9, 1890
Died Feb 12, 1947
Born in Mogilno, Poland
Psychologist
"founder of social
psychology“
Worked closely with the
Gestalt psychologists
Force field Analysis
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provides a framework for
looking at the factors
(forces) that influence a
situation, originally social
situations.
Lewin believed the "field" to
be a Gestalt psychological
environment existing in an
individual's (or in the
collective group) mind at a
certain point in time that can
be mathematically
described in a topological
constellation of constructs.
Action Research

first coined the term “action
research” in about 1944. In
his 1946 paper “Action
Research and Minority
Problems” he described
action research as “a
comparative research on
the conditions and effects of
various forms of social
action and research leading
to social action” that uses “a
spiral of steps, each of
which is composed of a
circle of planning, action,
and fact-finding about the
result of the action”.
Instructional Design
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Active Learning
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A Cohesive Approach
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Instruction must be planned with a clear vision of what the students will do
with the content presented. It is critical that students interact with the
instructional content and that activities be developed to promote and support
open-ended, self-directed learning. Content should never be delivered for
memorization, but instead for use as a tool in planned and sequenced
activities.
Lewin wrote that a piecemeal approach to guiding learners to accept new
ideas, attitudes, and behaviors is ineffective. Instead, a cohesive approach
must be utilized to support changes in cognition, affect, and behavior.
Impact of the Social Environment

Lewin theorized that before changes in ideas, attitudes, and behavior will
occur, modifications in a learner's perception of self and his/her social
environment are essential. He also argued that it is easier to create change
in a social context than individually.
More work on
Instructional Design
Instructional Design
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Maximise the effectiveness, efficiency and appeal of
instruction and other learning experiences.
The process consists of determining the current
state and needs of the learner, defining the end goal
of instruction, and creating some "intervention" to
assist in the transition.
The outcome of this instruction may be directly
observable and scientifically measured or
completely hidden and assumed.
Robert Mills Gagné
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Born in Aug 21, 1916
Died in April 28, 2002
Born in in North Andover,
Massachusetts
educational psychologist
best known for his
“Conditions of Learning”
involved in applying
instructional theory to the
design of computer based
learning.
The Gagné Assumption
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different types of learning exist, and that
different instructional conditions are most
likely to bring about these different types of
learning.
Five Categories of Learning
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verbal information
intellectual skills
cognitive strategies
motor skills
attitudes
Eight Types of Learning
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Signal Learning - The individual learns to make a general, diffuse
response to a signal. Such was the classical conditioned response of
Pavlov.
Stimulus-Response Learning - The learner acquires a precise
response to a discriminated stimulus.
Chaining - A chain of two or more stimulus-response connections is
acquired.
Verbal Association - The learning of chains that are verbal.
Discrimination Learning - The individual learns to make different
identifying responses to many different stimuli that may resemble each
other in physical appearance.
Concept Learning - The learner acquires a capability of making a
common response to a class of stimuli.
Rule Learning - A rule is a chain of two or more concepts.
Problem Solving - A kind of learning that requires the internal events
usually called thinking.
Gagné’s Nine Events of
Instruction
Nine Events of Instruction
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Gain attention - Curiosity motivates students to learn.
Inform learners of objectives - These objectives should form the basis for
assessment.
Stimulate recall of prior learning - Associating new information with prior
knowledge can facilitate the learning process.
Present the content - This event of instruction is where the new content is
actually presented to the learner.
Provide “learning guidance” - use of examples, non-examples, case studies,
graphical representations, mnemonics, and analogies.
Elicit performance (practice) - Eliciting performance provides an opportunity
for learners to confirm their correct understanding, and the repetition further
increases the likelihood of retention.
Provide feedback - guidance and answers provided at this stage are called
formative feedback.
Assess performance - take a final assessment.
Enhance retention and transfer to the job - Effective education will have a
"performance" focus.
George
Armitage
Miller
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Born Feb 3, 1920
Age 90
Born in Charleston,
West Virginia
Psychologist and
Cognitive Scientist
founder of WordNet
“Miller’s Magic Number”
Information Processing Theory
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TOTE: “Test-Operate-TestExit”
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an iterative problem solving
strategy based on feedback
loops
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test where the system is
currently,
then perform some
operation that makes a
change,
then retest again,
and to repeat this until the
answer is satisfactory, at
which point the process is
complete and ends (or
exits).
Test
Operate
Exit
Information Processing Theory
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The following is an example
of a simple TOTE: When
driving a car and looking for
the appropriate turn off.
Problem
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Test - is this the turnoff? - No
Operate - keep driving
Test - is this the turnoff? - No
Operate - keep driving
Test - is this the turnoff? - Yes
Exit
Test
Operate
Exit
Miller’s Magic Number
7±2
Miller’s Magic Number
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"The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two:
Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing
Information" (Miller 1956) is one of the most highly
cited papers in psychology
He looked at Memory span - which is a long list of
items (e.g., digits, letters, words) that a person can
repeat back immediately after presentation in correct
order.
Miller observed that memory span of young adults is
approximately 7 chunks. He noticed that memory
span is approximately the same for stimuli with
vastly different amount of information .
Charles M. Reigeluth
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Elaboration Theory
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instruction is made out of
layers and that each layer of
instruction elaborates on the
previously presented ideas. By
elaborating on the previous
ideal, it reiterates, thereby
improving retention
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Present overview of simplest
and most fundamental ideas
Add complexity to one aspect
Review the overview and
show relationships to the
details
Provide additional elaboration
of details
Provide additional summary
and synthesis
Reigeluth’s Elaboration Theory
Charles M. Reigeluth
The Eight Steps in Elaboration Theory
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Organizing Course Structure: Single organisation for complete course
Simple to complex: start with simplest ideas, in the first lesson, and then
add elaborations in subsequent lessons.
Within-lesson sequence: general to detailed, simple to complex, abstract
to concrete.
Summarizers: content reviews presented in rule-example-practice format
Synthesizers: Presentation devices that help the learner integrate content
elements into a meaningful whole and assimilate them into prior knowledge,
e.g. a concept hierarchy, a procedural flowchart or decision table, or a
cause-effect model .
Analogies: relate the content to learners' prior knowledge, use multiple
analogies, especially with a highly divergent group of learners.
Cognitive strategies: variety of cues - pictures, diagrams, mnemonics, etc.
- can trigger cognitive strategies needed for processing of material.
Learner control: Learners are encouraged to exercise control over both
content and instructional strategy. Clear labelling and separation of strategy
components facilitates effective learner control of those components.
Constructivism