Cognitive models

Cognitive models have been classified into models of thinking and models of students.

Models of thinking:

• Working memory is fast but limited. It can only handle a small number of data blocks, and the content tends to fade after a few seconds.
• Long-term memory can hold a huge amount of information—facts, data, and rules for how to use and process them—and the information can be maintained for long periods (for years or even decades).
• Most information in long-term memory is not immediately accessible. Using information from long-term memory requires that it be activated (brought into working memory).
• Activation of information in long-term memory is productive (created on the spot from small, stable parts) and associative (activating an element leads to activation of other elements).
• Working memory appears to be the part of our memory that we use for problem solving, processing information, and maintaining information in our consciousness.
• Working memory is limited.
• Working memory contains distinct verbal and visual parts.
• Working memory has a limited size, but it can work with chunks that can have considerable structure.
• Working memory does not function independently of long-term memory.
• The interpretation and understanding of items in working memory depend on their presence and associations in long-term memory.
• The effective number of chunks a piece of information takes up in working memory depends on the individual’s knowledge and mental state (i.e., whether the knowledge has been activated).
• Connecting the information presented to semantic knowledge also helps in retaining the information.
• Items fade from working memory in a few seconds if the subject does not try to remember the information by repeating it consciously [Ellis 1993]. This working memory repetition is known as rehearsal.
• long-term memory is productive and context dependent.
• By productive we mean that the response is not to simply find a match to an existing bit of data, but to build a response by using stored information in new and productive ways.
• By context-dependent, I mean that the cognitive response to a mental stimulus depends on both (1) the external situation and the way in which the stimulus is presented(if a problem can be solved by more than one method, but you ask Q about a method and then give the problem, students are found to use that method about which you questioned to solve this problem) and (2) the state of the respondent’s mind when the stimulus is presented.(if the students are able to relate the problem to some real life example or has some cultural reference then they are able to solve it better)
• Long-term memory is structured and associative.
• The key to understanding student reasoning is understanding the patterns of association that activate knowledge elements.
• In general, a pattern of association of knowledge elements is sometimes referred to as a knowledge structure.
• A pattern that tends to activate together with a high probability in a variety of contexts is often referred to as a schema.
• When a schema is robust and reasonably coherent I describe it with the term mental model.

Models of students:

• Knowledge students bring
• Reasoning students bring

Common naive misconceptions: students think cutting off part of a lens will result in only part of an image being visible on the screen.

Modular reasoning structures: Primitives and facets: students understanding of why do things work the way they do? these are called phenomenological primitives.(more is more)

Situated cognition: The use of context knowledge to help solve problems is a common feature of how people reason their way through situations in everyday life.

Ways to combat this:

1. Constructivism principle: Individuals build their knowledge by making connections to existing knowledge; they use this knowledge by productively creating a response to the information they receive
2. Context principle: What people construct depends on the context—including their mental states.
3. Change principle: It is reasonably easy to learn something that matches or extends an existing schema, but changing a well-established schema substantially is difficult.
4. Individuality principle.
5. Social learning principle.