LESSON 5

Cognitive Theories
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objectives: At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
a. Discuss the nature and basic concepts of the cognitive theories of learning.
b. Identify and explain the five features of cognitive science.
c. Discuss how cognitive psychology has evolved as a learning perspective.
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Cognitive Psychology
 Cognitive psychology is the study of the structure and components of processing of information’
 Cognitive psychologists believe learning can be studied by dealing on non-observable behavior
such as thoughts in a scientific manner.
 Cognitive psychology is based on the framework of Gestalt Psychologists like Max Wertheimer,
Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffka who gave emphasis on perception in the study of human
behavior.
 The word “Gestalt” means form, pattern, configuration or organized whole. Gestalt psychologists
were interested on how organisms perceive relationships among ideas and the effect those
relationships have on learning.
 Gestalt psychologists believe that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
 The cognitive aspects of human behavior are intelligence, perception, language, thinking/
problem solving, memory and attention. These aspects should be dealt with when studying
learning.
 COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORIES

 Cognitive learning theories deal on nob-observable behavior in the study of learning.; hence, the
theories focus on thought and information processing systems. Information processing refers to
the ways in which the sensory input (learning material) is transformed, reduced, elaborated,
stored, recovered and used.

1. FIELD THEORY (KURT LEWIN)

 Lewin claimed that behavior is influenced by forces (valences) and by the direction of these
forces (vectors).
 Lewin proposed of the concept of the “Life Space”. The life space of an individual consists of
everything one needs to know about a person in order to understand his/her behavior in a
specific psychological environment at a specific time.
 The concept of the life space call attention to the fact that it is not always possible to draw
accurate conclusion simply by observing overt behavior.
2. INSIGHT LEARNING: PROBLEM SOLVING BY INSIGHT (WOLFGANG Kohler)
 Kohler conducted an experiment called the “Aha Experiment “to demonstrate how insight
develops and how it is used in learning and problem solving featuring a chimpanzee named
Sultan.
 Insight means awareness and understanding of the relationships among things in the
environment and how understanding of these relationship enable one to learn and solve
problems.
 The more intelligent and experienced an individual is, the more he is capable of gaining
insight.
3. MEANINGFUL LEARNING DAVID AUSUBEL)
 Ausubel made a distinction between the following in his analysis of learning:
a. Reception vs. Discovery Learning
b. Roles and Meaningful learning
 The first distinction (reception vs. discovery) is important because most of the students’
learning, both in and out of school, is reception. But reception learning need not be rote, it
can be quite meaningful to students.
 In reception learning, materials may become meaningful as students internalize them.
 In discovery learning, students learn and then the students rearrange the learned material to
integrate it with the existing cognitive structures.
 Ausubel define meaningful learning as the acquisition of new meanings. This definition
implies that the material to be learned must be potentially meaningful, that is, it is
appropriate to the student and that the student can turn potentially meaningful material
into actual meaningfulness.
 Meaningful learning occurs when the material to be learned is related to what students
already know.
4. DISCOVERY LEARNING (JEROME BRUNER)

 Discovery learning is a learning that involves rearrangement and transformation of material

that leads to insight.
 In learning, students must be confronted with problem and let them think of a solution
either independently or in groups.
 To be able to learn, students must be helped to grasp the overall pattern of a field of study ,
so that more likely, they are able to remember what they learn and comprehend principles
that can be applied in a variety of situations and be prepared in mastering more complex
knowledge.
 Brunner also claimed that too much emphasis on step-by-step study procedure of studying
verbal and numerical materials, and , formulas that students can reproduce on cue but
unable to use or apply them outside the classroom.