Cognitive Psychology Overview
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By the Numbers http://ipt.byu.edu/isee/admin/print/index.php?story=2 Cognitive Psychology Overview How does memory affect learning? What types of information are more difficult to remember? What strategies are useful for storing and retrieving information? How can a teacher facilitate learning by better understanding memory? The purpose of this chapter is to help you learn about the Information Processing Model and other related cognitive concepts through encountering and resolving a classroom problem. The problem this story is based on was a regular concern with one of the authors' 3rd-grade classes, and one you're likely to encounter as a teacher. Cognitive psychology (also known as cognitivism), a term used to describe "the process of thought," is a branch of educational psychology that explores internal mental processes (Neisser, 1967). There are 6 different thought processes in cognitive psychology that have been researched extensively. 1. perception 2. attention 3. memory 4. problem solving 5. reasoning 6. decision making PAMPRD is a mnemonic to help you remember these 6 mental processes of cognition. They combine to influence behavior and learning. These will be discussed in greater detail in this chapter. Various models have been developed by cognitive theorists to describe how individuals think and process information. The most commonly accepted model of how the brain structures memory is referred to as the Information Processing Model (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968), which addresses perception, attention, and memory (PAM) in the six thought processes described above. Cognitive theories propose that the mind has a general architecture for processing information, often comparing the way our minds process information to the workings of a computer. In other words, the human mind is a system that processes information through the application of logical rules and strategies. Also like the computer, the mind has a limited 1 of 25 9/13/11 7:58 AM By the Numbers http://ipt.byu.edu/isee/admin/print/index.php?story=2 capacity for the amount and nature of the information it can process. Just as the computer can be made into a better information processor by changes in its hardware (e.g., circuit boards and microchips) and its software (programming), learners can also become more sophisticated thinkers through changes in their brains and sensory systems (hardware) and in the rules and strategies (software) they learn. 2 of 25 9/13/11 7:58 AM By the Numbers http://ipt.byu.edu/isee/admin/print/index.php?story=2 Sensory Memory How does attention affect memory? The standard information processing model has 3 major components: (a) sensory memory, (b) working memory (i.e., short-term memory), and (c) long-term memory. Sensory memory, the first level of memory, allows us to take a 'snapshot' of our environment and store this information for a short period. The environment makes available a variety of sources of information (light, sound, smell, heat, cold, etc.), but the brain only understands electrical energy. So, the body has special sensory receptor cells that transduce (i.e., change from one form of energy to another) this external energy to something the brain can understand. Through transduction, a memory is created. This memory is very short; less than 1/2 second for vision, about 3 seconds for hearing, and about 10 seconds for touch (Gilson & Baddley, 1969; Mahrer & Miles, 2002) . Can you imagine trying to process information about every single stimulus you experience? Your brain would quickly burn out! Fortunately, sensory memory acts as a buffer for stimuli received through the five senses. Perception is the process of recognizing different stimuli. A sensory memory exists for each sensory channel: iconic memory for visual stimuli, echoic memory for aural stimuli and haptic memory for touch. A stimulus must first be perceived. In order for the information to be further processed, attention is key. 3 of 25 9/13/11 7:58 AM By the Numbers http://ipt.byu.edu/isee/admin/print/index.php?story=2 Attention is a cognitive process that allows us to focus on particular environmental stimuli (Anderson, 2004). Once perceived, paying attention to something allows information to pass from sensory memory into working memory. Thus, attention serves as a filter for stimuli from our environment. By selectively determining what will 'get through' for further examination and what will not, attention allows us to focus on only the necessary stimuli. example Think back to a time when you were in a crowded room and a lot of people were talking. Were you paying attention to what each person was saying? Probably not, but what happened when someone in the room said your name? I bet your ears perked up. Even though you may not have actively perceived the words of the many conversations around you, your brain did. Most of that information was quickly discarded because your brain quickly judged you didn't need it. The common pattern of hearing your name, though, triggered something your brain might have thought was important and caused you to pay attention (the conscious act of recognizing a perceived stimulus) so you could move that information to your working memory and decide what to do with it from there. Cognitive psychologists have identified many different types of attention including: Alternating attention: Mental flexibility, or the ability to move focus between tasks with different cognitive demands. Divided attention: The ability to respond simultaneously to multiple tasks. Focused attention: The ability to respond directly to touch, sound, or sight. Selective attention: Ability to maintain focus on a specific stimulus even with competing stimuli fighting for one's attention. Sustained attention: Vigilance, or the ability to remain consistent through continuous and repetitive activity. So what? How can knowing about sensory memory actually help you as a teacher, though? Whether they realize it or not, most effective teachers already use sensory memory to their advantage by creating some type of advance organizer. An advance organizer prepares students to pay attention to specific aspects of the lesson before they are even presented (hence, the term "advance"). A worksheet given before watching a movie, a set of questions to guide students' thinking, or an activity that draws students' attention to a specific aspect of the lesson, are all ways in which you might have already experience an advance organizer. Teachers commonly refer to these as an "anticipatory set" or the "hook" for the lesson. 4 of 25 9/13/11 7:58 AM By the Numbers http://ipt.byu.edu/isee/admin/print/index.php?story=2 Working Memory What happens after attention? How do learners work with new information? How can teachers design instruction to maximize learners' working memory capacity? Working Memory Whereas sensory memory is the initial door for recognizing the many stimuli that confront us, we have to actually do something with that information if we are to learn anything. Information that is attended to (i.e., that makes it past sensory memory) goes into a temporary store where we can actively work with it. Atkinson and Shiffrin originally called this Short-term memory. Short-term memory is the capacity for holding a small amount of information in the mind in an active, readily available state for a short period of time. The duration of short-term memory is believed to be a matter of 15-30 seconds. In 1974, Baddeley and Hitch extended cognitive scientist's understanding of short-term memory by proposing that short-term memory is actually a sub-component of a system of working memory, which emphasizes functionality over simple storage. Storage, though important, is only one part of how the mind actively works with new information. In other words, information remains in working memory because the learner is actually doing something with that information. One way to retain information in working memory is through maintenance rehearsal, or repeating information over and over so you don't forget it. Maintenance rehearsal is less effective because it requires a great deal of cognitive load. example In the movie, "The Search for Happyness," Will Smith's character repeats a telephone number out loud over and over until he can write it down so that he doesn't forget it. Baddeley and Hitch's original model of working memory was composed of three main components; the central executive, which acts as supervisory system and controls the flow of information to and from its slave systems: the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad. The slave systems are short-term storage systems dedicated to a perceptual domain (verbal and visuospatial, respectively). 5 of 25 9/13/11 7:58 AM By the Numbers http://ipt.byu.edu/isee/admin/print/index.php?story=2 The central executive serves the following functions: binding information from a number of sources into coherent episodes coordination of the slave systems shifting between tasks or retrieval strategies selective attention and inhibition It can be thought of as a supervisory system that controls cognitive processes. Baddeley and Hitch have discovered that the performance of two simultaneous tasks requiring the use of two separate senses requires only slightly more cognitive load as performance of the tasks individually. In contrast, when a person tries to carry out two tasks simultaneously that use the same perceptual domain, performance is much less efficient. From this, researchers have proposed a dual encoding theory, or the idea that the best way to learn something new is to use two different senses to present that information. Cognitive Load Theory Just as sensory memory limits the amount of information that gets through to working memory, working memory itself is limited in its capacity. There is only so much the brain can actively work on at a time.