Cognitive learning theory focuses on mental processes and structures that occur as people make sense of the world. It explains learning as a change in mental structures that allows for different behaviors, rather than just a change in observable behavior. Learners are active constructors of knowledge who relate new information to what they already know in order to understand it. Learning involves changes in domain-specific and general knowledge stored in long-term memory through cognitive processes that operate on information held in working memory.

1. Cognitive Learning Theory
Learners are active. They are not simply empty vessels waiting to be filled.
They are also not simply responding passively to changes in their environments.
Cognitive Learning theories explain learning by focusing on changes in mental
processes and structures that occur as a result of people’s efforts to make sense of the
world. Behaviorism states that learning is a change in behavior. Cognitive theories
focus on thinking rather than just behavior.

2. Cognitive Learning Theory
Learning
Knowledge
Understanding depends on what learners know. New experiences are
interpreted in light of what is already known—so current knowledge is the
foundation for new knowledge.

3. Cognitive Learning Theory
Learners construct understanding—they don’t simply remember
what the teacher says. They relate what they are learning to what
they already know and they try to make sense of it.

4. Two types of knowledge
 Domain-specific knowledge: information that
is useful in a particular situation or that
applies mainly to one specific topic.
 General knowledge: information that is useful
in many different kinds of tasks; information
that applies to many situations.

5. Cognitive Learning Theory
Learning is a change in the person’s mental structures that creates the
capacity to demonstrate different behaviors. Notice how this definition is
more complex than the definition of learning from the last chapter (change in
behavior).

6. A model (which is what this analogy is): a representation that allows learners to
visualize what they can’t observe directly. This model will help you to visualize
what is going on in your own brain and those of your students.
An analogy: the computer
Input (typing on keyboard)
User
Information
processing: a
theory of learning
that explains how
Computer: stimuli enter our
RAM memory systems,
Hard disk are selected and
organized for
storage, and are
retrieved from
memory.

7. 3 components of information
processing model
 Information stores: repositories that hold information,
like a computer’s RAM and hard drive. Information
stores in the information processing model are
sensory memory (no real computer analogy), working
memory (like RAM), and long term memory (like hard
drive).
 Cognitive processes: intellectual actions that
transform information and move it from one store to
another. Includes attention, perception, rehearsal,
encoding, and retrieval. Like software in computers.
 Metacognition: awareness of and control over one’s
own cognitive processes.

8. Sensory Memory
The information store that briefly holds stimuli from the environment until they can
be processed.
Your brain receives stimuli (remember that is the Latin plural of “stimulus”)
from the outside world and it becomes part of sensory memory. The
stimuli are like input on a keyboard from the outside world. This memory
in people is extremely brief and you only retain material you actually
process even though your sensory memory is picking things up all the
time. Actually, this is the least effective part of this computer analogy
because a keyboard doesn’t remember what is typed on it but your brain
does retain what you sense at least for a little while.

9. Perception
 The process of detecting and assigning
meaning to that which is sensed.

10. Perception
There’s a good chance that you do not recognize the characters above (Chinese).
These marks are likely meaningless to you, although I recognize the one on the top
left as “chong” (the first character in the word that designates “Chinese”).

11. Perception
 Gestalt: German for
“pattern” or “whole.”
Gestalt theorists hold
that people organize
their perceptions into
coherent wholes
This is why you see this image as an
elephant and not just a collection of x’s.

12. Prototype: a best example or best representative
Perception of a category.
Feature analysis
(bottom-up
processing): we
recognize things based
on their individual
characteristics. In this
case, we see that these
four pictures are of the
same subject because
the features are identical
even though the pictures
are different.

13. Perception
Top-down
processing:
perceiving based on
the content and the
patterns you expect
to occur in that
situation.
You probably don’t have any sense of the patterns expected in Chinese writing
(different types of strokes as well as the stylistic features of calligraphy—one
individual’s handwriting) and therefore cannot process this image top-down, but a
person who can read Chinese fluently does and would use top-down processing.
Every word in Chinese has a different sign (ideogram); to be minimally literate in
Chinese, you have to be able to differentiate between and read 1500 ideograms.
A person who can read Chinese would use top-down processing to help the
recognition of these ideograms.

14. Perception
 Attention: focus on a stimulus.
 If you don’t pay attention to something, you
will not perceive it.
This is why editing your own writing is so
difficult—Gestalt theory says that you will
see the whole even if the whole is not
really there. You’ll miss the missing words
and therefore not pay attention to what is
really on the page.

15. Perception
 Automaticity: the ability to perform thoroughly
learned tasks without much mental effort
When you first start to play a
violin, you have to pay
attention to everything—how
to hold the bow, how to
move the bow, how to hold
the left hand, how to move
the fingers of the left hand,
where the instrument is in
relation to the shoulder, how
to keep the instrument from
sliding, etc. Eventually you
develop automaticity with all
those skills and can play
without having to think about
so much.

16. Working memory is the store that holds information as a person processes it. It
is conscious and deliberate.
Working Memory
Computers have two types of memory: Random Access Memory (RAM) and
the hard disk. RAM is the computer’s working memory—it determines how
many programs you can have open at once and how fast your programs load
and run. Your hard disk holds all your files for long term use and is much
larger than your RAM. Your brain’s working memory is like RAM. It can hold
a small amount of stuff and can be overloaded. As a teacher, you have to
watch for signs of overload from your students. When their working memory
is overloaded, they will not learn.
Cognitive Load Theory: recognizes the limitations of working memory and emphasizes
instruction that can accommodate its capacity

17. Short-term memory
 Component of memory system that holds
information for about 20 seconds.
 Part of working memory.

18. Working memory: three parts
 Central executive: the part of working
memory that is responsible for monitoring and
directing attention and other mental
resources.
 Phonological loop: part of working memory.
A memory rehearsal system for verbal and
sound information of about 1.5-2 seconds.
 Visuospatial sketchpad: part of working
memory. A holding system for visual and
spatial information.
The working memory holds about 20 seconds’ worth of material.

19. Working memory: retaining
information
 Maintenance rehearsal: keeping information
in working memory by repeating it to yourself.
 Elaborative rehearsal: keeping information in
working memory by associating it with
something else you already knew
 Chunking: grouping individual bits of
information into meaningful larger units.

20. Maintenance rehearsal
The number
is 555-1212.
The number
is 555-1212.
The number
is…

21. Elaborative rehearsal
The number
is 555-1212.
My nephew is
5 and my
niece is 12.

22. Chunking
The number is
555-1212. My
nephew is 5 and
my niece is 12.
That’s one
nephew and two
nieces.
Telephone numbers are 7 digits. By remembering 1 nephew and 2
nieces, that reduces the load to 3 items instead of 7.

23. Forgetting
 We lose memory through interference
(remembering other things) and through
decay (the weakening and fading of
memories with the passage of time).

24. Working memory in the classroom
 Tasks that are difficult require a lot of working memory,
the way large programs on your computer use a lot of
RAM.
 In school we often ask students to do two tasks at a
time: to read AND to learn the material being read, to
write AND to be able to represent knowledge through
that writing. If a student is an able reader and writer, this
is no problem. If a student struggles with any aspect of
reading and writing, the other task (the learning or the
representation of knowledge) will suffer because too
much of the student’s working memory is being devoted
to reading and writing.
 In this situation, if you want the student to learn, it is
better to separate the tasks. Have the student listen to
the text instead of reading or have the student dictate a
text instead of writing.

25. Working memory: strategies for
maximizing it
Chunking is the process of mentally combining separate items into larger, more
meaningful units.
Chunking:
When you send a file through the internet, you use a program that compresses
the information to a more manageable size. Your brain does this with
information in working memory by “chunking” or putting several bits of
information together so that only one total thing has to be remembered. In order
to do this, look for patterns. For instance, if you hear E, G, B, your mind should
chunk this into an e minor chord. If you hear seven digits, you can chunk them
into a group of three and a group of four, like a telephone number.

26. Working memory: strategies
 Automaticity: the use of mental operations
that can be performed with little awareness or
conscious effort.
 There are computer programs called
“macros” which allow you to accomplish a
task with fewer keystrokes. Your brain does
this through practice: eventually a task takes
little conscious effort.
 When you first drive a car, everything takes a
huge amount of thinking. With practice, most
driving procedures become automatic.

27. Working memory: strategies
 Dual processing: the way two parts, a visual and an
auditory component, work together in working
memory.
 Some computers can do two things at once. So can
your brain. When information comes in two channels
(e.g., your eyes, your ears, your fingers, etc.), your
brain uses information from both sources to enhance
working memory.
 This is why it is better to give students information in
BOTH visual and auditory forms.

28. Long term working memory: holds the strategies for pulling
information from long-term memory into working memory.
Long term memory
Our permanent information store…
Long term memory is like the hard drive on your computer. It holds both files
and programs. Likewise, there are three types of long term memory:
declarative knowledge, which is knowledge of facts, rules, etc. and which is
like the word processing files on your hard disk, procedural knowledge,
which is how to accomplish something and which is like the programs you
have on your hard disk (word processor, games, etc.), and conditional
knowledge, which is knowledge about when and why to use declarative or
procedural knowledge..

29. In other words…
 Our long term memory has information on
stuff, how to do stuff, and under which
conditions we are going to use which type of
knowledge.
 Isn’t this amazing????

30. This chart assumes that some aspects of Ed Psych are general knowledge…
Long term memory & Ed Psych
General knowledge Domain-specific knowledge
Declarative Human beings have memories Long term memory contains 3
Human beings begin life as types of knowledge
babies and mature into adults Piaget outlines cognitive
development which explains a lot
about how young children think.
Procedural If I want someone to repeat an I need to avoid overloading
action, I can praise that person students’ working memories when
for that action. I am teaching.
Conditional When to approach a person When to use behavioral
who is having a problem and procedures
when to let that person alone. When to use a psychosocial
understanding of development vs.
understanding moral
development.

31. Knowledge that is both verbal and visual is easiest to learn, hence these power
points.
Long term memory: contents
Words… and Images
Explicit memory: long-term memories that involve deliberate or conscious recall.
Implicit memory: knowledge that we are not conscious of recalling but influences
our behavior or thought without our awareness.

32. Long term memory
 Semantic memory: memory for meaning
 Episodic memory: long-term memory for
information tied to a particular time and place,
especially memory of the events in a person’s
life.
 Flashbulb memory: clear vivid memories of
emotionally important events in your life.

33. Long term memory: semantic memory
Things can make meaning in several ways:
 Propositions and propositional networks
 Images
 Schemas

34. Propositions
 This is the smallest unit of factual meaning—
that can be judged as true or false.
 Propositional network: set of interconnected
concepts and relationships in which long-term
knowledge is held.

35. Images
 Representations based on the physical
attributes—the appearance—of information.

36. Schema Organized networks of information.
On the computer, you organize your data in files. You might have a folder for
each class you are taking with word processing documents for those classes
inside. Your brain organizes declarative knowledge by schema. You have
schema for everything you do, from driving a car to reading for college, from
playing a musical instrument to eating with a fork vs. eating with chopsticks.
The material in Piaget in Chapter Two mentions “schemes” which are
understandings of the world. They are altered when the child encounters
something that doesn’t fit within the schemes (accommodation and
assimilation).
Story grammar: schema representations for texts and stories.
Scripts: schema representations for events.

37. Schema
A schema is how you understand a concept. Prior to
Galileo, astronomers thought that the sun circled the earth.
They interpreted the stars’ movements in relation to their
schema, their understanding. With the invention of the
telescope, Galileo and others found that the earth actually
circles the sun, so the basic schema changed. This
illustrates that when students have a schema that is false,
they misunderstand other information that depends on that
basic concept.

38. How
Schema schemas
influence
learning
Provide scaffolding
that enable us to Facilitate
assimilate summarizing
knowledge
Schemata help
This is the organize our learning.
Piagetian idea of When it is organized,
maintaining we can summarize it
equilibrium. well.
Influence
attention
allocation When we have a schema
Stimulate
about something, we can
Schemata tell us which inference
make good guesses
part of the information making
about it.
is important

39. How
Schemas schemas
influence
learning
Provide scaffolding
that enable us to Facilitate
assimilate summarizing
knowledge Our driving a car schema
helps us to teach another
You can use what you
person how to drive—what is
know from driving
important, what is not
automatic shift and
important, etc.
apply to standard (e.g.,
how much acceleration
between gears) Influence
attention
allocation When you are on the highway
For example: Stimulate and all the cars slow down in
Driving a car
It’s important to pay attention inference front of you, you can infer that
to what you see on the road. making there is either a problem ahead
It’s less important to pay or a police officer.
attention to the radio.

40. Schemas
 Not only do you need to know what your
students’ schemas are, but you also need to
show how the new concept you are teaching
fits into knowledge (schemas) students
already have. Behaviorism taught us to teach
in parts and later put them into wholes. But
students need to have a sense of the whole
(schema) so they can make sense of the part
that you are teaching.

41. Episodic memory
 Long-term memory of information tied to a
particular time and place, especially memory
of the events in a person’s life.

42. Flashbulb memory
Most of us have vivid memories of
where we were on September 11, 2001.
Every generation has some kind of flashbulb memory: people over fifty
remember the assassination of John F. Kennedy. People in their thirties and
forties remember the Challenger accident. Now, we have 9-11.

43. This is stuff in long-term memory that you may not be aware of.
Implicit memories
 Classical conditioning—the association of a strong
feeling with something because of experience. Part
of long term memory.
 Procedural memory—long term memory for how to
do things.
 Productions—the contents of procedural memory;
rules about what actions to take, given certain
conditions.
 Priming effects—activating a concept in memory or
the spread of activation from one concept to another.

44. Storing and retrieving information in
long-term memory
 Elaboration
 Organization
 Context

45. Elaboration
 Adding and extending meaning by connecting new
information to existing knowledge.
How easy would it be to memorize the following concepts without some kind
of elaboration? (and yet, how often do we ask students to learn something
with no connection to what they already know?)
Synecdoche is a type of metaphor in which the part stands for the whole,
the whole for a part, the genus for the species, the species for the genus,
the material for the thing made, or in short, any portion, section, or main
quality for the whole or the thing itself (or vice versa).
Eponym substitutes for a particular attribute the name of a famous person
recognized for that attribute.
Anaphora is the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of
successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly in conjunction with
climax and with parallelism
http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.htm

46. Organization
Ordered and logical network of relations.
In other words, it’s a lot easier to learn something that is presented in an
orderly, logical way than to try and learn something where facts seem to be
presented completely randomly.

47. Context
The physical or emotional backdrop associated with an event.
Years from now, as you remember Educational Psychology concepts, you
may find yourself remembering the room you were studying in or this
classroom.

48. Levels of Processing
The more deeply processed
This is related something is, the better it stays
to in long-term memory.
elaboration. Memorizing a learning theory is
shallow processing. Figuring
out how to apply a learning
theory in your classroom
represents deeper processing.
Levels of processing: a view of learning suggesting that the more deeply
information is processed, the more meaningful it becomes.

49. Retrieving information
 Have you ever used the search function on
your computer to try to find a file you know is
SOMEWHERE?
 Retrieving information from your long term
memory involves a similar search…
 Retrieval: process of searching for and
finding information in long-term memory.

50. Spreading activation
 Retrieval of pieces of information based on
their relatedness to one another.
Remembering one bit of information activates
(stimulates) recall of associated information.
 If you have ever figured out a second exam
question from having answered a first exam
question, then you have experienced this—
working on one thing leads you to remember
related information.

51. Reconstruction
 Recreating information by using memories,
expectations, logic, and existing knowledge.
 Sometimes reconstructed memories are not
accurate, as studies have shown.
 (However, this is also a good strategy for test-
taking—seeing if you can reconstruct
information you have forgotten, based on
what you know and logic).

52. Forgetting
???????
The loss of, or inability to retrieve, information from memory.

53. Forgetting as Interference
The loss of information because something learned before or after detracts from
understanding—something interferes with remembering.

54. Retrieval—pulling information from long-term memory into working memory for
further processing.
Forgetting as Retrieval Failure
When your computer won’t retrieve a file or a program that you KNOW should be on your hard drive
(or CD), that is like what happens to your brain. The information is there but you can’t get to it. It
won’t go from long term memory to working memory. If you have had the feeling that a word was
on the tip of your tongue but you can’t remember it, then you know how this feels.
With computers, we back up the information on CD’s and other disk drives so it is available. In our
brains, we try to make the information as meaningful as possible (with lots of connections to other
things we know) so that we can retrieve it.

55. Developing procedural knowledge
 Declarative stage: students have knowledge
ABOUT the procedure—they know what they
are supposed to do but they don’t have
experience.
 Associative stage: students can perform the
task, but only with a lot of thinking about it.
 Automatic stage: students can perform the
process without thinking about it.

56. Can you think of an example of your own learning in relation to this idea?
Developing Procedural Knowledge
Three Stages:
•Declarative stage. The banjo has five strings,
To get from you use finger picks on the right hand to make a
here to here sound. The sequence of fingers on the right hand
takes creates the banjo roll, e.g., index then middle then
PRACTICE!!!! thumb is a forward roll. I know all this but it takes a
Lots of it!!! great effort for me to play.
This is true of •Associative stage. I can play Cripple Creek very
math and slowly with the printed music in front of me. As I
anything move through this stage, I start learning the music
else!!! by heart and I pick up speed. Any outside
interruption will mess me up (e.g., someone
playing guitar or trying to talk with me).
•Automatic stage. I can play Cripple Creek
without thinking about it. I can play a forward roll
without thinking about it. I can play with a guitar
player and I can play the song even if someone
tries to distract me.

57. Implications
 You need to be aware of where your students are in
the process of developing procedural knowledge. For
example, in using the keyboard on a computer, you
will have students in all three stages. For students in
the declarative or associative stages, the keyboard
takes a lot of thought to use, so they will not be as
fluent in their writing. You can imagine that when a
student is “hunting and pecking,” they are more likely
to choose short words and sentences because the
process of typing is so difficult. Students in the
automatic stage will be able to use the keyboard with
ease and it will not get in the way of them expressing
themselves.

58. Implications
 Further, when you are teaching procedural
knowledge, you need to create opportunities
for students to practice their skills regularly.
This might be time in class on a regular basis
or it might be homework.

59. Cognitive Processes
 Attention
 Perception
 Rehearsal
 Encoding
 Retrieval
What do you think these processes might be? In other words, I’m asking you to
activate your schema about thinking prior to reading this part of the book.

60. Attention
The process of consciously focusing on a stimulus.
As a teacher, you will want your students to focus on what you are doing. If you are
boring, they won’t. The younger they are, the more annoying to you will be their
choice of activity when they are not focusing on you. Older students might doze or
whisper to each other. Younger students might get up and move around the room.

61. How to get their attention
 Demonstrations
 Discrepant events (surprises)
 Charts
 Pictures
 Problems
 Thought-provoking questions
 Emphasis
 Using their names
In your experience, what techniques have teachers used to get student attention?

62. Perception
The process used to attach meaning to stimuli.
The meaning making process is where things can fall apart. Students with no
background in a subject will not be able to attach meaning to something. If I give you a
graduate school text in a subject that you have not studied, you will probably attach very
little meaning to the words in the text.

63. Rehearsal
A process of repeating information
over and over, either aloud or
mentally, without altering its form.
For example, when you want to dial a number you just looked up, you
might repeat it in your mind several times as you reach for the phone. But,
the number is only in your working memory—it may or may not transfer to
your longterm memory.

64. Encoding
The process of representing information in long-term memory (back
to the computer analogy—saving your work to your hard drive).

65. Encoding: Meaningfulness
Meaningfulness describes the number of connections or links between an
idea and other ideas.
Three things contribute to
meaningfulness:
•Organization—the process of
clustering related items of content
into categories or patterns that
illustrate relationships.
•Elaboration—the process of
increasing the meaningfulness of
information by forming additional
links in existing knowledge or
adding new knowledge.
•Activity—having students get
involved in what they are doing
(hands on).

66. Dual-coding theory suggests that long-term memory contains two distinct
memory systems: one for verbal information and one that stores images.
Dual-Coding Theory
Our brains have one system for processing WORDS and another for
IMAGES. There are interconnections between these systems. Some
information works better if it has an image aspect to it such as a chart.
Word
One idea behind these reading guides is to convert some of the words in your text into
images so you can remember it better.
Imagery: the process of forming mental pictures.

67. Elaboration
 Provide examples
 Form analogies (relationships that are similar
in some but not all respects)
 Use mnemonic devices which link knowledge
to be learned to familiar information.

68. Mnemonics: techniques for remembering; also the art of memory
Mnemonics
 Loci-method: technique of associating items with
specific places.
 Peg-type mnemonics: systems of associating items
with cue words.
 Acronym: technique for remembering names,
phrases, or steps by using the first letter of each word
to form a new, memorable word.
 Chain mnemonics: memory strategies that associate
one element in a series with the next element.
 Keyword method: system of associating new words
or concepts with similar-sounding cue words and
images.

69. Examples of mnemonics
 Big Elephants Always Die Gracefully Crawling
Forward (BEADGCF, order of the flats)
 Don’t Play Lousy Music At Inter-Lochen (Dorian,
Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Ionian,
Lochrian, the modes)
 George Eats Old Grey Rats And Paints Houses
Yellow (GEOGRAPHY)
 Mother Always Takes Her Enemies Mush And
Turnips In Cole Slaw (MATHEMATICS)
 My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine
Pickles (the planets)
The only problem is: how can you remember how to spell “mnemonic”?

70. Rote memorization
 Remembering information by repetition
without necessarily understanding the
meaning of the information.
 Serial-position effect: the tendency to
remember the beginning and the end but not
the middle of a list.
 Part learning: breaking a list of rote learning
items into shorter lists.

71. Rote memorization
 To a person who struggles with learning, a
large “thing” to memorize, whether a poem or
the times tables, is overwhelming.
 Help students break the task down into
manageable parts.
 Do a lot of follow through so that students
learn an important lesson: large things are
accomplished by doing a small part each day.

72. Practice
 Distributed practice: practice in brief periods
with rest intervals.
 Massed practice: practice for a single
extended period.
Massed practice is essentially cramming.
Distributed practice is more likely to result in
success, however, it takes some maturity to
be able to do a little bit each day. Help your
students to learn this important lesson.

73. Activity
 The more active you are in learning, the more
material you will encode in your long term
memory.
 Just scanning through a text while watching
television is not being active.
 Doing worksheets is probably not being very
active in learning.
 Think about how you can be active in your
learning and how you can help students to be
active in their learning.

74. Awareness and control over one’s own cognitive processes.
Metacognition
This means thinking
about thinking. If you
know about how your
own thinking works, then
you can make good
choices about how you
learn.
We teach metacognitive strategies in the
classroom so that students can become
independent, effective, lifelong learners.

75. Meta-attention
These are the strategies you use to help you to pay attention. Although you
may not have been formally taught these strategies, you might find that teaching
attention strategies to your students will help them to be better learners.

76. Knowledge and control over our memory strategies.
Meta-memory
These are the strategies you use in order remember information. Students
need to be taught ways to remember things. It’s a good idea to give students
several different ways to remember things (visual strategies and organizations
of information as well as linguistic strategies and organizations).

77. Developing metacognition
 Use strategies—plans for accomplishing
specific learning goals
 Meta-attention strategies—help children to
LEARN to pay attention. Directly teach these
skills.
 Metamemory strategies—don’t just ask
students to memorize something. Find out
what they know about HOW to memorize and
help them add to their strategic choices.

78. Diversity
Each person’s cognition is different because people bring different
experiences to learning. You need to make sure that everyone ends
up “on the same page” even if they didn’t start there.

79. Schema Production
You help students to
Integration integrate the new
with the old and to
put the material into
longterm memory.
Information Comprehension
Aquisition Monitoring
You teach a lesson. Make You check on how students
sure it’s not so long that it understand what you have
overwhelms students’ taught—you assess their
working memory. schema development.

80. Advance Organizer
Input (typing on keyboard)
User
Computer:
RAM
Hard disk
This slide was an advance organizer. It’s purpose was to help you to organize the
information you were going to receive about how the brain learns. Advance
organizers help students to develop workable schemata.

81. Understanding & Automaticity:
Acquiring Procedural Knowledge
Introduce and review Develop understanding Practice
Get kids to pay attention. They need to connect With teacher help
Check their schemas. procedural knowledge with during associative
declarative knowledge. stage, and then by
themselves to
achieve automaticity.
Automated basic skills: skills that are applied without conscious thought.
Domain-specific strategies: consciously applied skills to reach goals in a
particular subject or problem area.

82. Homework and Practicing
•Extension of class work
•High level of success
•Expected part of class
•Students are accountable
•Doing a little each night is
better than a lot once a week
•Helps to develop automaticity
Classroom teachers know that homework can help students
learn. Musicians and athletes know that regular practice can
lead to big gains. Classroom teachers may want to quiz
musicians and athletes on practice techniques and music and
physical education teachers may want to consider some of the
above advantages and considerations to encouraging practice
at home.

83. Assessment
 We use assessment to figure out if how we
are teaching is working with our students.
 Be sure there is instructional alignment: the
match between goals, learning activities, and
assessment. Otherwise, you don’t know if
what you are doing is working.

84. Diversity
 Development: people develop at different times, so
some students’ ability to use working memory will be
more mature than that of other students the same
age.
 Individual differences: people are different in terms
of their working memory spans.
 People’s background knowledge makes a large
difference in their learning. If they have a lot of
background knowledge related to school subjects,
they will learn those school subjects more easily. If
they don’t, then you as a teacher may need to
provide opportunities for students to develop that
background knowledge.

85. Top-down Visuospatial Working
Strategies
Vocabulary processing sketchpad memory
Inform-
Long-
Distributed Episodic ation
Acronym Chunking term Model Productions Schemas
practice memory process-
memory
ing
Long-
Cognitive Domain-
Explicit Information term Part Propositional
Analogies learning specific Scripts
memory stores working learning network
theories knowledge
memory
Cognitive Domain-
Flashbulb Instructional Maintenance Sensory
Attention load specific Perception Prototype
memory alignment rehearsal memory
theory strategies
Cognitive Dual-
Automated Massed Peg-type Semantic
pro- coding Forgetting Interference Organization
basic skills practice mnemonics memory
cesses theory
Conditio
Serial
nal Dual General Keyword Mnemonic Phonological Recon-
Automaticity Position
know- processing knowledge method devices loop struction
Effect
ledge
Bottom-up Short-term
Context Elaboration Gestalt Learning Mnemonics Priming Rehearsal
processing memory
Levels of
Central Elaborative Meaning- Procedural Spreading
Decay Imagery pro- Retrieval
executive rehearsal fulness knowledge activation
cessing
Declar-
Chain ative Implicit Loci Meta- Procedural Rote Story
Encoding
mnemonics know- memory method memory memory memorization grammar
ledge