Cognitive Learning Theory

Developing in parallel with the first computers, and in direct opposition to the behaviorist focus on observable and controllable behaviors, cognitivist researchers focused their attention on how learners “obtain, process, and use information” (Richey et al., 2011). A central assumption of cognitive theory is that learning is best understood by examining and explaining the acquisition of knowledge and the development of a person’s internal cognitive structures, processes, and representations that are generalizable to all other people (Bower & Hilgard, 1981; Smith & Ragan, 2005). Bower & Hilgard (1981) state that this core principle of cognitive theory places it closer to the rationalist end of the epistemological continuum – in contrast with the staunch empiricism of behaviorism. However, “knowledge was still viewed as given and absolute just like in the behavioristic school” (Wilhelmsen et al., 1998). Additional assumptions of cognitive learning theory are that 1) learning is not stimulus-response-reinforcement, but rather a process of acquiring knowledge through mental processes, 2) learners selectively process what they learn, 3) a more knowledgeable person (teacher) transfers information to a less knowledgeable person (learner), and 4) learners file information in their memory according to organizational patterns called schemas (Ormrod, 2013). Three areas of cognitivism that have had the greatest influence on how cognitivists understand what learning is and how people learn include: Gestalt theory, information processing theory, and schema theory. 

Gestalt Theory

One of the earliest cognitivist theories, Gestalt theory, was developed in Germany during the 1920s. Scholars within this tradition include Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, Kurt Koffka, and Kurt Lewin (Lewin, 1951; Schunk, 2012). Gestalt theory emphasized that “human psychological functions generally tend to deal with coherent entities (Gestalt) and understand phenomena by their structures and connections” (Ash, 1998). The overriding principle of Gestalt theory is that the mind is a unified whole, yet it also has the ability to self-organize. This core principle led to an emphasis on “problem-solving as the core of learning, reaching beyond the simpler acquisition of knowledge and skills” (Duncker, 1945). Furthermore, Gestalt theory served as a link between behavioral theory and true cognitive theories in that the Gestalt concept of mind (i.e., “central thinking processes”) was found “to account for more behaviors than stimulus-response mechanisms”, “to shape learners by allowing them to see and understand the relation of the whole to the parts that make it up” (Winn, 2004), and to “react in a total well-organized response to a situation” (Richey et al, 2011 citing Mowrer, 1960).  In addition, Gestalt theory introduced several concepts that directly apply to learning. The concepts include the notion of memory traces as “cognitive blueprints that specify the conditions under which the recollection of the event will occur” (Tulving & Watkins, 1975, p. 262) as well as the laws of similarity, proximity, and closure (Richey et al., 2011). These laws describe how learners identify and remember different aspects of instruction. Richey et al (2011, pp. 56-57) describe these laws as “items with similar features tend to be grouped together in our minds” (law of similarity), elements with close proximity to one another tend to form perceptual groups (law of similarity), and the mind naturally completes physically incomplete objects (law of closure).

Information Processing Theory

Although “soft behaviorist” Edward C. Tolman (1949) suggested in his book “Purposive Behaviour in Animals and Man” that learning is likely not based on associations between stimuli and responses, as other behaviorists believed, but is instead based on the relationships formed among stimuli (i.e., cognitive maps), the first real distinct move away from the behavioral paradigm to more cognitive theories of learning occurred in the late-1950s and throughout the 1960s and 1970s in reaction to the Soviet Union’s launching of the Sputnik satellite in 1957. Cognitive science in the United States got its start within the context of a nationwide push for basic educational reforms, which included a “scientific curriculum” – an initiative chaired by Harvard professor of cognitive psychology, Jerome Bruner (Illeris, 2018). Beginning with Bruner (1964), researchers began to formally depart from stimulus-response-reinforcement models and started developing theories based on the study of mental processes. By the late 1970s, the cognitive approach was the dominant learning theory.

Although widespread adaption of computer technology for education did not occur until the 1980s (Reiser, 2001), the invention of the computer did make a noticeable impact on the development of cognitive learning theory in that psychologists now had a new metaphor to help describe mental processes – the mind as a computer. From information processing theory came the notion that the human mind functions like a computer that takes in auditory or visual data through a brief initial stage of processing known as sensory memory (Driscoll, 1994), holds and analyzes the information on a short-term basis within one’s limited working-memory (short-term), stores potentially unlimited amounts of meaningful data into long-term memory and retrieves it when needed (Richey et al., 2011).  The three types of memory make up memory as a whole, which according to Seel (2008) is “the mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experiences” (p. 40). One note about working memory is that the time information is held depends on: 1) the amount of information and 2) the rehearsal process. The most recognized – albeit debated – research pertaining to amount of information that can be retained in working memory is seven, plus or minus two chucks of information at one time (Miller, 1956). Analysis, storage and retrieval is facilitated through a process of rehearsal, which works to build new cognitive structures that promote more efficient long-term memory. Finally, the storage of meaningful data within long-term memory (i.e., learning) and its eventual transfer to novel situations is highly dependent on how new knowledge is organized through the construction of mental schema or “data structures that represent generic concepts” (Smith & Ragan, 2005).

Schema Theory 

Kant was the first to view schemas as organizing structures that facilitate our perceptions and interpretations of the environment (Johnson, 1987) and “a lens that both shaped and was shaped by experience” (Mcvee, Dunsmore, & Gavelek, 2005). Schema theory tells us that learners organize knowledge within schema structures that exist as a set of concepts connected together in our long-term memory, which are used to understand further information. The use of schema help learners to activate the areas of memory needed for a particular task. Richey et al. (2011, p. 58) note that “a schema aids in comprehension, storage, and retrieval of new knowledge”. The construct of schema and process of schema development were also core mediation concepts in Jean Piaget’s (1952) work on the origins and development of cognition. For Piaget, “development was interpreted as an ongoing dialectic in which the individual either assimilates new experience consistent with existing schemas or changes schemas to fit his or her experience” (Mcvee, Dunsmore, & Gavelek, 2005).

Some additional Cognitivist scholars and their contributions include:

  • Allan Paivio’s (1971) Dual-Coding Theory – Both visual and verbal information is used to represent information (Sternberg, 2003); there are two ways a learner can process learned material: either through verbal associations or visual imagery.
  • Alan Baddeley’s (1999) Dual Channel Principle – People learn best when both channels (verbal and visual) are used for processing.
  • John Sweller’s (1988) Cognitive Load Theory – Since working memory assumes a limited capacity principle (Miller, 1957; Cowan, 2001), the teacher’s responsibility is to manage the learner’s level of cognitive load, not all of which is bad. The teacher must design lessons to promote “good” (i.e., germane) cognitive load and minimize “bad” (i.e., extraneous) load.
  • John Flavell’s (1976) Metacognition – Metacognition is defined as “thinking about thinking” and predicts that learners with high metacognitive skills in planning, monitoring, and reflecting on one’s own learning will be more successful than those with low metacognitive skills.

Join me again tomorrow as I wrap up our brief overview of the three dominant theories of learning…with Constructivism.