Learning and Cognition: Learning How to Learn
As it is concisely
highlighted in this week’s chapter titled “Cognitive Information Processing” by
Driscoll (2005), there are numerous factors affecting L2 learning such as
motivation and attitude, personality, learning strategies and styles,
proficiency in native language as well as dialect and register. As one of the sayings of George Evans, “Every student can learn. Just not on the
same day or in the same way.” Students are unique like a rainbow colors,
they have their own strategy, characteristic features and aptitude. In order to
analyze all those factors have been put forward by researchers after
longitudinal researches and case studies, language teachers need to be
internalized by their own effective factors in language learning as well.
Cognitive Information
Processing is not one single theory but a generic term used to describe all the
perspectives that focus how our cognitive processes such as attention,
perception, encoding, storage, and retrieval of knowledge (Akoglu, 2019). CIP uses a two store model where stimuli
enter the “Sensory Register” and from there goes to Short Term Memory. By means
of rehearsal and encoding, they can get stored in Long Term Memory. The
retrieval process can access this information from LTM and bring it to the
Working Memory for use. Whereas the study of cognition is similar to
computer metaphor in psychology and it refers to the integration of knowledge
from multiple perspectives and associations. Simply put, the term “stimulus” defined
as any object or action that elicits a sensory response in an organism in Behavioral
Psychology.
Importantly, there
are some stages of information processing affecting learning process; sensory
memory, working memory and long term memory. It is crucial to elucidate the main
stages and how they are believed to function in learning. The sensory memory
which represents the first stage of information processing through the senses
such as vision, hearing, smelling and so forth in order to hold information in memory.
Even though we have five senses, there are two most studied senses in terms of
memory called as “iconic for sight and echoic for hearing”. One of the most
interesting things about sensory memory is that it lasts a different amount of
time depending on the ways and means of information coming in. Visual input is
extremely vivid but it only lasts for less than half a second whereas auditory input
lasts a little bit longer; 3-4 seconds. For instance, when you tune out of
conversation, your friend gets mad that you are not listening and paying
attention and you can apply to your echoic memory to remember the last thing
that he or she said. There are tons of information coming into our sensory
memory however we are not able to process all of it at once and we decide what
to pay attention to and it gets passed along into working memory to be
processed. That’s why, the first interact with the information in your
environment is called temporary register like a draft page in your computer’s
notebook but you decide what data is necessary to keep or save.
On the other hand,
working memory is whatever you are pondering on this moment that refers to “short
term memory” as well. Working memory capacity works differently and not defined
by time so much as quantity. Here the magic number 7 processes and your working
memory holds about seven plus or minus two pieces of information at a time up
to five to nine. This process is varied based on how complicated the
information are and this holding data in mind process can be exemplified by the
seven digit number stance; we all have ability to keep the seven digit numbers
in mind without getting the numbers confused or mixing them up. Our sensory
memory has different components for different types of input whereas working
memory has different components to process those distinct types of input. The
words and numbers coming from our iconic memory such as a name of street and
the street number are coordinated by phonological loop in order to get stored
in episodic buffer, namely refers to temporary store, which acts as a connector
for the long term memory. As a final stage called “Long Term Memory”, it works
just as “save button” in a word document in your computer. Unfortunately, it is
not possible to say that it works perfectly but perfect practice makes perfect
the retention of knowledge in mind. That could be negotiated the term “encoding”
that refers to relating incoming input to concepts and ideas already stored in
memory. More specifically, mnemonics is one of my helpful teaching strategy in English
lessons with young learners as an effective mean for encoding the theme “Order
of Planets” and it links with schema and constructs a mental model of knowledge
as Piaget (1936) emphasized in his theory of cognitive development. Conversely,
the age is a sharp factor effecting the level of anxiety and social interaction
with the environment and they all work like memory thieves. As it was widely
accepted in Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve Experiment (1985), learning and
retaining information depend on amount of time passed since input given and strength
of one’s memory. In respect of thereof, repetition and quality of associations
work well in retrieving enough to comprehend yet it might sometimes result in
inability to access previously learned information as an instance, most of the
students encounter with this problem remembering the dates and results of wars
in history classes. On the other hand, there are some strategies, like note
taking or interfering information with previous knowledge to enhance retrieval;
by doing so encoding cues with verbal and visual schemas will mostly likely work
in facilitating retrieval. All in all, knowing where to use strategies to
manage your cognition is crucial for learning how to learn as chain of
behavior.
References
Driscoll, M. P.,
(2005). Introduction to theories of learning and instruction (pp.71-110).
quotes
Walqui, A. (2000).
Contextual factors in second language acquisition. San Francisco
Clearing
House on Languages and Linguistics, 20016-1859. Washington, DC.
Retrieved fromhttp://www.ericdigests.org/2001-2/language.html
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