COGNITIVE LEARNING

THEORIES

Prof Dr. Gurnam Kaur Sidhu

 LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this topic you should be able to:

• Explain the rise of cognitivism
• Differentiate between behaviourist and cognitive
theories
• Discuss how Gestalt psychology explains learning
• Evaluate Piaget’s theory of human learning
• Discuss Badura’s social learning theory
• Explain the characteristics of Ausubel’s theory of
meaningful learning.
 What is Cognition?

• Cognition - The act of knowing or acquiring knowledge.

• Cognitive Process – Mental processes involved in the
act of knowing, which include perceiving, attention,
reasoning etc.
• Cognitivist – Researchers who scientifically study
cognitive processes to explain how organism learn
something. Wilhelm Wundt (first cognitivist)
 Gestalt Theories of Learning
• During the behaviourist emergence in the
1900s among American psychologist,
German psychologist were interested in
studying mental processes. They were
called Gestalt psychologists.
• Gestalt – Configuration/ Organisation
• Max Wertheimer(1880-1943) discovered
this while riding a train.
• Two lights blinking on and off were seen
as they were moving
• Using stroboscope, he concluded the eye
saw stimuli in a way to give illusion of
motion
• He called this Phi phenomenon
 Gestalt Theories of Learning

• Phi phenomenon explains why an occurrence

occurs?
• We tend to add ‘organisation’ to the experience
that is not contained in the sensory data
• We don’t see the stimuli as isolated but as
combined together in a meaningful
configuration(gestalt)
• Green > three , Bottle > water and etc.
 Gestalt Theories of Learning

THE WHOLE IS DIFFERENT FROM THE

SUM OF ITS PART
• We add something to the
experience that is not contained in
what we see or perceive.
• When we organize, we add
information
• In Monalisa portrait, we don’t see it
as a painting of nose, hand, smile
etc., but as a person.
• To dissect is to distort
 Gestalt Theories of Learning
The Law of Pragnanz
• When an organism sees or experience something unorganized, it
will impose order on what it sees or experiences.
• Based on this, Gestalt Principle of Perceptual Organization was
generated.
i) Principle of Closure
We tend to complete incomplete experience

ii) Principle of Proximity

We tend to organize elements close together as units or groups

iii) Principle of Foreground and Background

We tend to distinguish between any well marked area of the visual
field(foreground) and leaving the rest(background). (E.Rubin,1921). In
some instances, the figure and background may fluctuate.
 Problem Solving by Insight
• Gestalt psychologist looked upon brain as an
active and not a passive receiver and store of
information.
• Brain makes information meaningful and
organized.
• Enormous amount of info enters the brain,
thus perceptual system should process
information in such way that it makes sense.
• Wolfgang Kohler (1890-1940) wrote in The
Mentality of Apes(1913), that behaviour
could not be explained by principles of
association alone.
• There was an inner process that enabled the
apes to grasp the structure of a situation and
recognize interconnections
 Problem Solving by Insight
• Problem solving is a cognitive phenomenon
• Organism comes to see solutions after pondering
on the problem
• When a problem exist, an organism faces a state
of cognitive disequilibrium
• The organism thinks of different ways until the
problem is solved
• The solution comes suddenly
• Problems can either be unsolved or solved
 Problem Solving by Insight
• Kohler worked with chimpanzee to test his notion
about learning
• A chimpanzee is placed in an enclosed play area.
• Kohler placed a banana out of the chimpanzee’s
reach, along with other tools such as sticks and
boxes
 Problem Solving by Insight
• Experiment 1
Initially, one of the chimpanzees, called Grande; jumped around to get the
banana but was not successful. It later used the boxes as a step-ladder and
got the banana.
• Experiment 2
The chimpanzees were also able to build tools. A chimpanzee called Sultan,
combined 2 short sticks to create a longer one to reach for the banana.

• Kohler believed that the chimpanzee showed insight, acting as if they saw
the solutions before carrying the actions out.
• The essence of a successful problem solving behaviour is being able to see
the overall structure of the problem.
• Two actions are involved :
i) getting a wholly consistent pic
ii) seeing what the structure of the
whole requires for the parts
 Problem Solving by Insight
• Insightful learning has 4 characteristics :
i) Transition from pre-solution to solution is
sudden and complete
ii) Performance based on a solution gained by
insight is usually smooth and free of errors
iii) A solution to a problem gained by insight is
retained for some time
iv) A principle gained by insight is easily applied
to other problem.
 Problem Solving by Insight
• Based on Gestalt principles, Bigge(1982) argued that
instruction should be arranged that students would
participate actively in developing insight by attacking a
problem posed by the teacher.
• Instead of presenting information found by others,
students should be taught on how to make new
discoveries themselves.
• He suggested 3 ways to do so :
i) Switch the subject matter
ii) Introduce disturbing data
iii) Permit students to make mistakes
Piaget’s Theory of Learning
Jean Piaget(1896-1980)
• A Swiss biologist.
• Introduced organisation and adaptation
• Organisation- internal characteristic of an
organism, enabling it to take action to take
action to arrange the environment.
• Adaptation – the ability to fit in with the
physical environment
• In other words organisation is a internal
process and adaptation is an external process
 Piaget’s Theory of Learning
• From a biological point of view, organisation is
inseparable from adaptation as they are 2
complementary processes of a single mechanism.

• Learning process is iterative. – new info is shaped

to match existing knowledge, and existing
knowledge is modified to accommodate the new
information.

• Four concepts of learning theory ; schema,

assimilation, accommodation and equilibrium
 Piaget’s Theory of Learning
Schema
• Mind is made up of schema
• Mental – Mental or cognitive structures that enables
a person to adapt and organise the environment.
• We gain more refined schemas as we grow and learn.
• Figure 3.4 shows a child with no schema of a cow, but
had some with dogs. To the child, the cow has the
characteristics of a dog, so his schema told him it was
a dog.
 SCHEME.. . SCHEMA
• Piaget (1952) defined a schema as 'a cohesive, repeatable action
sequence possessing component actions that are tightly
interconnected and governed by a core meaning'.
• In more simple terms Piaget called the schema the basic building
block of intelligent behavior – a way of organizing knowledge.
• For example, a person might have a schema about buying a meal in
a restaurant. The schema is a stored form of the pattern of behavior
which includes looking at a menu, ordering food, eating it and
paying the bill. This is an example of a type of schema called a
'script'.
• Whenever they are in a restaurant,
they retrieve this schema from memory and
apply it to the situation.
 EXAMPLE
• Disequilibrium- Child sees pix of dog first time in pix bk – confused and stage
of disequilibrium
• Initial Schema – Parent : This is a dog. Child begins to have an understanding of
what is a dog from a pix book (Child: This is what a dog looks like)
• Schema Forming / Assimilation – Child actively constructs a schema about
dogs and assimilates information and reaches a stage of equilibrium (Oh a Dog
has ears, 4 legs, tail)
• Assimilation Process – Child assimilates his understanding of what a dog is
when he sees one in the park ( A Dog has ears, 4 legs, tail)
• Then dog starts to bark = Disequilibrium- Child’s schema about dogs do not
include barking – furry animal – licking = causes further disequilibrium
• At this stage child is quickly Assimilating information and actively constructing
meaning – (Dog has ears, 4 legs, tail, barking, furry, licking) – child is now
building an internal schema or adding information to existing schema –
probably seeks confirmation from parent . So parent reinforces and confirm
information- assimilation is occurring- Disequilibrium resolved
• Schema is organized to incorporate new information
 Piaget’s Theory of Learning
Assimilation
• A cognitive process by which a person integrates
new information or experience into existing or
readily available schema.
• A process of fitting new information into existing
cognitive structures.
• Occurs all the time
• Existing schema is like a balloon, keep on
expanding with addition or assimilation of new
information,
• There is a quantitative change but no qualitative
change
• No new schema are produced, as the old one is
being used.
Piaget’s Theory of Learning
Accommodation
• When confronted with new information
individuals would try to assimilate it with
existing knowledge as mentioned earlier.
• It is at times impossible since there is no
schema.
• If this happens, there are two options available;
the person can create a new schema, or modify
existing schema so that the new information can
fit into it.
• Hence, it is the creation of a new schema or
modification of old schema.
Piaget’s Theory of Learning
Equilibrium
• It is a balance between assimilation and
accommodation.
• Disequilibrium is an imbalance between
assimilation and accommodation.
• If a person can’t assimilate, he/she tries
to accommodate, or vice versa, until the
new information can be understood.
 Piaget’s Theory:
Application in the Classroom
Intelligence has three components;
contents, function and structure.
• Content – observable behaviour
that reflect intellectual activity
• Function – Characteristic of
intellectual activity, namely
assimilation and accommodation.
• Structure – organisational
properties of the brain and schema
 Piaget’s Theory:
Application in the Classroom
• Piaget stressed that learning environment should exist
to help students learn through actions.
• Teaching strategy should make children aware of
conflicts and inconsistencies in their thinking, to
ensure they move to a new level of intellectual growth;
i) Use problem
ii) Use appropriate questioning techniques.
iii) Diagnose on what they have already know and how
they think.
iv) Let them interact with their peer, as it is an
important source of intellectual development.
v) Learning environment should encourage active self
discovery.
 Social Learning Theory
Albert Bandura (1925 – present)
• Psychology professor at University of Stranford
• Interested in theories proposed by Dollard and
Miller in their book, Social Learning and Imitation.
• They suggested that children could learn when
they were reinforced at a time when their
behaviour matched that of another person.
• Agreed that learning is a trial and error process and
based on imitation.
• In Bandura and Walter’s book entitled Social
Learning Theory and Personality
Development(1963), they argued that merely
observing a person might be sufficient to lead a
learned response.
• Reinforcement is not necessary.
 Social Learning Theory
• In his book, Social Learning Theory, he laid
principles of social learning .
• He argued that children learned to act
aggressively when they modelled their behaviour
after violent acts of adults.
• Aggression is explained from 3 aspects;
– how aggressive patterns of behaviour are developed,
– what provokes people to behave aggressively and
– what determines whether they are going to continue
to resort acting aggressively later on.
 Social Learning Theory
Bobo doll experiment
• 4 groups of children watched videos of a model who reacted to a plastic
clown doll
• The first two watched the model punching the doll, one video showed the
model was rewarded while another was punished.
• The third group watched the model doing nothing to the doll while the
model was not present in the fourth one
• Children who saw the model got rewarded showed more aggressive
behaviour than those watching the model got punished

• This proved that the degree to which individuals observed and imitated a
model’s behaviour could be explained through four processes;
i) Attention
ii) Retention
iii) Reproduction
iv) Reinforcement
 Social Learning Theory
• Bobo doll experiment
 Social Learning Theory
Attention
• First component of observational learning.
• One can’t learn much just through observation,
unless they perceive and attend to significant
features of the modelled behaviour.

Retention
• To reproduce behaviour, one should encode the
information into long term memory.
• Only then the information can be retrieved and
retained.
 Social Learning Theory
Reproduction
• An observer should be able to reproduce the model’s
behaviour
• Observer should learn and possess physical capabilities of
modelled behaviour.
• Once behaviour is learned, physical capability is needed to
produce the act

Motivation or Reinforcement
• Final process
• Observer expect motivation or reinforcements for the
modelled behaviour.
 Modelling, Imitation and
Reinforcement

• Model – Actual person whose behaviour serves

as a stimulus for an observer’s response.
• Symbolic model – Include books, verbal or
written instructions, pictures, mental images,
cartoon or movie characters, religious figures and
even television. It is more prevalent to children
• Exemplary model – Peers, siblings and parents, as
well as teachers and other well-behaved people
 Modelling, Imitation and
Reinforcement

Sources of information in imitation

• Direct Reinforcement
Involves direct reinforcement of learner by the
model
• Vicarious Reinforcement
Involves deriving a second hand type of satisfaction
from imitation. If the model does something, she
must do it as well because she derives some
reinforcement or pleasure from her behaviour.(The
model would do the same)
Applications of Social Learning Theory

• Bobo doll experiment helped Bandura to theorise

the effects of violence on TV
• When students are punished for breaking the
school’s rules, children watch them being
punished. They learn eventually that if they break
the rules, they’ll get punished.
• Modelling theory explain behavioural influence.
• It is less useful in creating or understanding
changes in thinking or feeling
 Theory of Meaningful Learning
• David Ausubel
• A task is approachable in two ways,
rote learning and meaningful learning.
• Rote learning materials are discrete
and isolated entities which are not
related to established concepts and
may be forgotten(Ausubel, 1962)
• Material learned that is related to
experiences or memories is more likely
to be retained.
 Theory of Meaningful Learning

• The structured experiences or memories are

known as cognitive structure.
• It consists organised and stable concept s in a
learner’s brain or cortex.
• Nature of organisation is assumed to be
hierarchical, the most inclusive(general)
concept is at the top, and more specific ones
at the base.
 Theory of Meaningful Learning

• Ausubel introduced subsumption

• The process by which new information enters the
consciousness and directed or organised to fit in
existing cognitive structure.
• To gain meaningful information, it is usually
subsumed under a broader, more inclusive piece of
meaningful knowledge closely related to it
– Eg: Understanding pantun is easier when we noticed it
is a kind of poem with distinctive features.
• The more distinct or different the new knowledge
is from the relevant subsumer, the harder it is to
understand.
 Theory of Meaningful Learning

The key to understanding, is relatingthe information

to prior knowledge. Subsumption has 2 forms :
• Derivative Subsumption
A new information is learned, is an example of a
concept that has already been learned.
• Correlative Subsumption
A learner alter or extend her broad concept of prior
knowledge to include the possibility of the new
ones.
 Application of Ausubel’s Learning
Theory

• Ability to remember is a function of whether new

material can be associated with an existing structure.
• Instruction should start from general ideas towards the
specific ones.
• Instructional materials should attempt to integrate new
materials with the previous ones through comparison
and cross references of ideas.
• Teachers should not ask students to learn meaningless
materials as they have no background information
 Application of Ausubel’s Learning
Theory

• Advance organisers are concepts and ideas that are

given to the learner before the material was taught.
i) They should be introduced in advance of learning and
presented at a higher level of abstraction, generality
and inclusiveness.
ii) They should be selected based on their suitability for
explaining integrating and interrelating the new
material.
iii) They aim to enhance the cognitive structure of the
learner
 Application of
Ausubel’s Learning Theory

• Advance organisers can take various forms :

i) Chapter titles and headings
ii) Introductory paragraph
iii) Cognitive maps and graphic organiser
iv) Diagrams, pictures and cartoons
 CONCLUSION

• Cognition – act of knowing or acquiring knowledge

• Cognitive processes – mental processes involved in the act of knowing
• Gestalt – configuration/organisation. The whole is different from the sums
of its part
• Problem solving is a cognitive phenomenon, and when solution come, it
comes suddenly. Organism gain insight into the solution of the problem
• Schemas - Mental/cognitive structures that enable us to adapt and
organise the environment
• Assimilation – cognitive process which a person integrates new
information into readily available schema
• Accommodation – When a person creates new or modify an existing
schema where new information learned can be placed.
• Equilibrium – Balance between assimilation and accommodation
 CONCLUSION

• Degrees to which individuals observe and imitate a model’s

behaviour is explained in four components; attention,
retention, reproduction and reinforcement
• Subsumption – New information enters the consciousness
and is directed or organised to fit in existing cognitive
structure.
• Derivative subsumption – new concept learned is an
instance of already learned concept.
• Correlative subsumption – To attain new information,
learner alter or extend existing broad concept to include
new concept
Thank You for your kind attention

Questions?