1. What Is Cognition?
We've all seena classroomof studentssittingandwatchingtheirteacherimpartuponthemthe ancient
wisdomof theirelders(orteachingthemstate capitals;bothare important).Didyoueverwonderwhat
was goingoninside theirheads?Justhow doesthe informationtheyare takinginbecome actual
knowledge?Well,wondernomore,because todaywe're goingtowalkthroughthe processof how we
learnthroughcognition.
The firstthingwe needto do isdefine twokeywords:cognition andlearning.Cognitionisthe processof
acquiringandunderstandingknowledge throughourthoughts,experiences,andsenses.Learning
involvesacquiringknowledge throughexperience,study,orbeingtaught.If youthinkthatthese two
conceptsare awfullysimilar,you're right.Bothare inexorablylinked - learningrequirescognitionand
cognitioninvolveslearning.Wheneveryousee orhearsomethingnew,yougothrougha seriesof
cognitive processes,whichare the processesthatresultinlearning.
The DifferentCognitive Processes
The firststepin the cognitive learningprocessisattention.Inordertobeginlearning,astudentmustbe
payingattentiontowhattheyare experiencing.Asanyone whohasbeeninaclass full of children
knows,attention isn'tunlimitedandcanbe quite fleeting.Educationalpsychologistshave come tothe
conclusionthatthe average personcanholdapproximatelytwoorthree learnedtasksintheirattention
at the same time.Thismeansthatif youare tryingto dust andvacuum simultaneouslyyoumaybe able
to pull itoff,butthrow ineatinga sandwichandoddsare goodyou'll take a bite out of your dusterand
smearlunchmeatonthe walls.
We alsoknowthe average personcan onlyattendtoone complex taskat a time.Tryingto drive anddo
longdivision?Notgoingtohappen.Talkonthe phone while waltzing?Unlikely.Incase you're
wondering,thisisalsoacompellingreasontonottalkonthe phone anddrive - you justdon'thave
enoughattentiontodoeach taskcompletely.
Next,the informationthatyouare payingattentiontohasto be put intomemoryina processcalled
storage.There are three levelsof memorythroughwhichinformationmusttravel tobe trulylearned.
Let's saythat for the firsttime youhear that the capital of the state of OregonisSalem.Thisinformation
isnow inyour sensoryregister,whichholdseverythingyouare exposedtoforjusta secondor two.By
the endof thissentence,youmayhave alreadyforgottenthe capital of Oregon.
If you pay attentionandrereadthe sentence,however,thatinformationwill move fromthe sensory
registerintoshort-termmemory.Thisareaof your memorywill holdinformationanywhere from20
secondsupto a minute.If yourehearse the information,suchasrepeatingittoyourself,takingnotesor
studyingit,ithas the chance to move to your long-termmemory.Thisareawill holdinformation
indefinitelyandhasanunlimitedcapacity.The challenge,aswe shall see,canbe infindingthingsin
there.
2. Nowthat you've paidattentionandmovedthe informationintomemory,it'simportantthatyourbrain
organize thisinformationsoitcanbe retrievedlater.Encodingcanworkthrougha numberof processes,
such as developingverbalmnemonicsorthe delightfullynamed methodof loci,butthe ultimategoal is
to assigna specificmeaningtosomethingyouhave learned.The mnemonicforrememberingthe
planet'sordercomesto mind:'My VeryEducatedMother JustServedUsNachos.' Rememberthisand
youcan quicklyrecall the namesandorderof all the planets.Retrievalgoeshand-in-handwithencoding
by simplyreversingthe processof encoding.If youwantto rememberwhichplanetisfourthfromthe
sun,justrun throughyour mnemonicandyouhave youranswer.Since the fourthwordismother,the
fourthplanetisMars
