Cognition and thinking

Many animals can learn, but humans are unique in that:

• complex language
• repository of knowledge - culture/society
• metacognition

Our memory is not like a camera

1. it is incomplete
2. it is inaccurate - interpreted rather than literature
3. it is not permanent

Teaching and learning

• we do not naturally know how to learn and remember
• we do not naturally know how to teach

Strategies

• Self
  • don't try to remember all
• look for patterns
• fit existing knowledge
• Teaching
  • provide framework
• provide reason

• Encoding information
  • verbal labels
  • symbols
  • behaviours
  • imagery
  • gist/ ubuntu
• Construction of meaning
  • self -gestalt –> closure —— — –
  • co-construction of meaning
    • mostly good, some bad (e.g. conspiracy theories)
• Organizing our thoughts
  • concepts
  • schema
  • scripts (for events)
  • personal theories
  • world views
• Self strategies
  • realize we may be wrong
  • seek out other perspectives
• Instructional strategies
  • explicitly teach new concepts

2020-09-01

• Brain functions as integrated system, but useful to consider different components/ functions of memory
• coding, storage, retrieval
• Types
  • Storage register 2-3 s, unencoded
• needs attention
  • Working (short-term) memory, 7 numbers/4 items, 30s
  • LT memory: limitless
  • declarative vs procedures (+/- conditional) knowledge
• Central executive - in pre-frontal cortex as “manager”
• There is also “implicit” learning vs “explicit”:
  • apples / apricots more common
  • horses found in field/ shops

• self-strategies: focus on need to know vs nice to know; attention
• instruction: keep attention

• Long term memory - size is large BUT
• Retrieval is one problem
  • retrieval cues - internal vs external
  • context is important
• Semantic vs episodic memory
• Decay - if not used
• Reconstruction when retrieving memory - may be “misremembering”
• “Prospective memory” – need to remember sometime at some specific time
• Interference e.g. capital of Turkey
• “incubate a problem”

• 2020-08-26 created
• 2020-08-28 added Chapter 3
• 2020-09-19 added Chapter 6