The Theories and Theorists that Shape our Understanding of the Learning Process
To View a Timeline of All Theorists Click Here
Overview & Resources
More Psychologists
Cognitive psychology, as a scientific discipline, involves itself with studying the mind and mental functions. (http://psych.rutgers.edu/menu-iv/co). It is based on the assumption that the brain can be understood as a complex computing system. The mental functions most often studied are memory, language, attention, perception, learning, conceptual development, reasoning, and decision making. Regarding its connection to educational practice,
Roediger (2013) points out five educational practices that were shown not only to be effective but also general enough that they can be used in a wide array of disciplines. They include:
-
distributing practice on tasks,
-
retrieval practice (i.e. testing),
-
interleaved practice (where practice for one topic is interwoven within practice for other topics),
-
elaborative interrogation (where learners explain to themselves why the information is true), and
-
self-explanation (where learners explain a procedure or process to themselves).
Videos / Links
Cognitive Psychologists
Application, Learning Transfer, & Facilitation
Cognitive
Cognitive theories of learning, developed largely in response to the dominant behavioral theories of the 1950’s and 1960’s, suggest that learning results from internal mental activity and not from externally imposed stimuli. The crucial mechanisms of learning involve the role of the learner’s prior experience, the processing of information and the organization of the information to be learned. (Merriam, Caffarella & Baumgartner, 2007)
While they may fall into other categories, these theorists all made some contribution to the development of Cognitive Psychology. Click a photo to view their profiles and find out what other theories they contributed to.
Cognitivist theory, application, learning transfer, and facilitation methods can be explored through any of the psychologist profiles above. Please click on a name or photo to learn more!