Cognitivism theory

Cognitivism theory or the cognitive theory of learning predicts that learning occurs when a person develops models in their mind of how the world works. This includes considerations of specific processes of model formation and symbolic interpretation, brain functions (e.g., memory, perception, and processing), mental structures, rules, and categories that are used to understand the world.

Definition

Cognitive theories of learning are focused on the internal processes that people use to make sense of the world and generate models of how the world works and how to act accordingly. Learning in a cognitive perspective is when a person changes the models that they use to act in the world based on information that they take in from the environment, and is influenced by the brain's specific functional capabilities and a person's individual psychological traits.

Additional Information

Note: the field of cognitive theory is vast and far greater than the scope of this article. This is provided as a basic primer to the field and the primary concepts that are used in education. It is far from comprehensive and it is recommended that you do deeper research if you are interested in this branch of psychology and educational theory.

Cognitive theories emerged as the dominant psychological and educational theory to explain how the mind and learning work after the behaviorist theory fell out of prominence. Influenced by work in computers and computer design from 1940 to 1990, cognitivist approaches to learning make heavy use of models and schemata to describe the internal processes occurring within a person's mind and how they performed information processing using mental rules, much like a computer's processes would be described and engineered.

Within the broad perspective of cognitivist psychology, certain mental processes that people use to make sense of the world and learn are influenced primarily by:

• (1) the brain's physical abilities (for instance, through memory and functional limits to processing information)
• (2) a person's emotional and psychological state (for instance, how anger or lack of self confidence affect decisions, or how interest influences learning)
• (3) the environment in which the person interacts (through sensory perception and environmental factors)
• (4) by using language, the ability to symbolically represent and "operate on" (i.e., think about) objects, ideas, and concepts, particularly abstract concepts

The internal mental structures and rules that are created by people help them make decisions to categorize new information, guide their behavior, and alter their understandings to accommodate new information.

Perception, symbolic representation, and operating on ideas

Jean Piaget, an influential theorist in cognitivism and education, suggested that people learn along a progression of increasingly complex skills that build on each other. For instance, a baby begins with basic instincts and sensory perception wired into their new brain. New experiences are added over time, and the baby begins to develop personal rules and structures for how things work, such as cause and effect of lifting and dropping a ball, or how to expect motion to work when you see a parent walking to you or away from you.

Eventually through a lot of trial and error through their senses, a baby can begin to expect how things work and predict the outcome. This leads to the baby having an increasing ability to guess how new situations may play out based on their prior experiences. The baby typically begins to also understand language and that ideas can be represented symbolically through sounds and words. With words, a toddler and small child can start to describe and think about how the world works. Or, as Piaget describes it, operates on the world by thinking about it and rationalizing how and why things work based on their understanding.

Cognitivist theories like that of Piaget are concerned with the internal mental processes that people use to process information, how people think about and categorize ideas and knowledge, and how people make decisions about what to do next based on information that they receive. Learning experiences that draw from this family of theories will be interested in learning outcomes that help people make positive changes to the mental processes that they use for taking in new information and making sense of the world. Additionally, cognitive theories frequently suggest that people use language as a mental tool known as symbolic representation for processing and making sense of complex concepts and abstract ideas. Learning activities that help people organize their thoughts, reflect on their thoughts, and assist with the process of people interpreting their thoughts will likely be successful at promoting learning from the cognitive perspective.

Building mental models, information processing, and using models to understand new content.

People also develop categories of things that they experience and rules for how to use information and solve problems. In one common family of cognitive theories, information processing is concerned with the specific mental structures, brain functionality, and rules used for how a person takes in new information and categorizes it to be used in new situations. From this perspective, when new information is processed and the mental rules for understanding it have been appropriately revised, learning has occurred and the learner is better equipped to perform tasks that use that information.

Schema theory is another commonly discussed theory within the context of cognitivist perspectives on learning dealing with rules and mental processes that people use. In this perspective, schema are structures or models in the mind that are used to process and make decisions about things that people encounter in the world. Learning occurs when schema are changed or created to perform new skills or use new knowledge.

Tips and Tricks

• It is important to remember that no single learning theory is correct - each has generated substantial evidence that explains and predicts how and why learning happens in different contexts. Certain aspects of cognitive theory may be beneficial to your learning experience and how you expect your learning activities to achieve the desired learning outcomes. You may also find it useful to borrow from other learning theories to build explanations of why you expect your learning experiences to bring about the desired effects.
• It may be useful to consider what are the reasons that you expect your product to help your audience learn. Approaching this question from a cognitivist perspective, you could ask yourself questions related to what internal, psychological processes are being used by the learners in your product and how you expect them to change these processes (which indicates learning). Additionally, you could ask how people understand and categorize knowledge in their heads, how they think about and process knowledge, and what kinds of rules they use to take in new information and make decisions on what to do. These are all questions that may be hard for a learner to articulate, so further reading in cognitive theory may be useful to find out how these questions have been studied and how learners are influenced by the cognitive processes that they use.

Related Concepts

• Behaviorism theory
• Learning theory

Examples

None yet - check back soon!

External Resources

• Schema theory: An Introduction (IB Psychology). A useful writeup explaining schema theory, or one of the cognitive processes that are commonly discussed in cognitivist approaches to learning. Schema are structures in the mind that are used to process and make decisions about things that people encounter in the world. Learning occurs when schema are changed or created to perform new skills or use new knowledge.