Cognitive Learning Theory

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All the time people have tried to find the answers for a lot of psychological questions, including the essence of perception, awareness, knowledge, and their relationship. During only last two centuries the world has seen many new definitions of social behavior. The Renaissance was marked by the emergence of the scientific method that helped uncover the main postulates of truth.

Still, the modern view is based on the ability of science to reveal the world’s internal links, relationships, causes and effects, in particular the ones governing the social and psychological world of human beings.

Among the processes involved in human activities, the ones of cognition and knowledge interpretation occupy the central place. Studying them was a challenge for traditional sciences, but with the emergence of cognitive learning theory, the majority of troubling issues have been solved.

Modern psychology is a complex system of disciplines, different stages of formation, associated with various areas of practice. One of such departments is Cognitivism; the cognitive paradigm poses the main interest in the topic of mind as a “black box” that can be understood through research. Cognitivism is a heterogeneous concept, merging the theoretical and methodological issues.

Such interpretations have brought new mental pabulum to scientists. It was a real revolution in understanding and research of the people’s cognition. Such theory began to fill up with new assumptions, and famous psychologists took an active interest in cognitivism. A very interesting and comprehensive theory was proposed by an American psychologist Edward Tolman.

Initiating the field of “purposive behaviorism”, the scientist took an active interest in the fundamental notions that organism produces behavior for the sake of fulfilling the function of accommodation to the environment. But later Tolman changed his own position determining behavior as holistic, purposive, and cognitive.

Tolman’s contribution to the theory of cognition is in his research of the cognition nature: he found cognition to be related to a pattern of stimuli and serving for coping purposes. He coined the term “cognitive map”, which dealt with the intrinsic reflection of the perceived outer environment (Sahakian, 1976). The researcher claimed that individuals acquire the idea of objects in the physical space surrounding them, and through locating those concepts in their mind map the process of cognition is actually researched (Olson, 2008).

Albert Bandura has also made his contribution to the development of Cognitivism. In general, his basic idea dealt with the social learning theory but it included cognitive factors as well as behaviorist ones (operant factors in particular) (Olson, 2008).

The main point of Bandura’s philosophy is that the process of cognition is actually realized through social learning processes, representing a complex interaction between behavioral, psychological and biological processes. According to Bandura, people learn by means of observing other people’ deeds, attitudes, reactions, and behaviors, as well as analyze their outcomes and making relevant conclusions afterwards (Cognitive Theories, n.d.).

Another helpful field of cognitive learning theory research is the Gestalt theory that originated in the Frankfurt University regarding the visual perception theories at the beginning of the 20^th century; it is a psychological theory which studies cognition as a “unified whole” (Olson, 2008).

The intention of the theory was to explain the methods of organizing visual data and conceptualizing it into the inner mental framework done by human beings in the process of cognition. Originally the Gestalt theory is considered as theory of perception, interested in the way the brain imposes pattern on the perceived world. The role of ultimate success in acquisition of particular knowledge occupies the central place in the theory (Olson, 2008).

Judging from the set of psychological and cognitive implications the cognitive theory suggests, it becomes possible to assume that the theory may be effectively applied in education. From the educational viewpoint, the theory suggests a new way of studying, and moves into problem solving-leaning. Mttler (1998) gives the ideas of a famous cognitive psychologist Ittelson who argues that the described theory combines perceptual awareness and thinking.

Traditionally, different educational authorities propose their model of studying, forgetting about personal cognitive possibilities of students. In fact, students can not absorb enough useful information, and all educated processes become non-effective. As a result, too much of the material considered by the student becomes inapplicable to verbal elaboration, or always present to conscious awareness (Mettler, 1998).

Concepts of effective teaching are derived previously from the theory of cognitive learning. No simple definition of learning theory exists. Learning was as training of the mind, gathering of knowledge, a process of individual development, a mechanic change in behavior and the development of insights resulting from interactions with one’s environment (Cole, 1982).

Beginning in the 1950s, research on learning began to shift toward a more cognitive focus on knowledge. The most widely accepted classification of learning proposed during this period was the hierarchical categorization of educational objectives in the cognitive domain offered by Bloom (1956) (Mittler, 1998).

The cognitive learning theory pertains to how individuals are able to grasp the material, and which educational potential they possess. Constructivism is an educational approach deriving from the need to place the learner in the center of attention because of the independent work on conceptualization he or she performs, as well as to study associated processes involved in the conceptualization process (Cognitive Theories, n.d.).

There is much material that the cognitive learning theory offers to the field of education because it offers an innovative approach to viewing the process of material acquisition and retention for students. Several approaches to the cognitive learning theory indicate that guided, discovery and motor learning are some subtypes of cognitive theory utilization in the learning process.

The fact is that all of them presuppose a certain pattern of activities on knowledge-making, and they all derive from the basic assumptions of the human cognition (Mettler, 1998). Therefore, there is much potential for utilizing the cognitive learning theory for the educational purposes, and to design educational practices suiting the educational needs of students much better.

The cognitive learning theory is an effective explanation of most processes that occur around and within a personality. Cognitivism has proven its efficiency in understanding the nature of people’s cognition and outer world’s concepts’ perception; its efficiency in education is also a recognized one; in addition, it offers a set of solutions to human psychological problems. Society needs new definitions and explanations of events, concepts, and phenomena surrounding them in everyday reality.

But there is absolutely no doubt that Cognitivism has already provided a new view for further development of many human-activity fields, such as psychology, learning, interpretation of knowledge etc. It offers an innovative insight into how human beings perceive the surrounding world and interpret their knowledge, which is essential for further advancement of theory and practice in both psychology and education.

References

Cognitive Theories (n.d.). Learning Theories. Web.

Mettler, R. (1998). Cognitive Learning Theory and Cane Travel Instruction: A New Paradigm. Linkoln, Nebraska: DIANE Publishing.

Olson, M., Hergnhahn, B. (2009). An introduction of theories of learning. (8^th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Sahakian, W.S. (1976). Introduction to the Psychology of Learning. Chicago: Rand McNally Company.

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Cognitive Learning Theory

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