1. COGNITIVE
LEARNING
THEORIES
Syamsul Nor Azlan Mohamad

2. INTRODUCTION
 cognitive perspective defines learning as a change in
potential behavior rather than necessary in actual
performance
 cognitive psychologists assume that mental processes exist,
can be studied scientifically, and humans are active
participants in their own acts of cognition (Ashcraft, 2002)
 Cognitive theorists rejected the “stimulus-response”
mechanism proposed by behavioral psychologists.
 To them, learning is not simply a “trial and error” process and
results from reinforcement; but more to a cognitive process
in constructing, interpreting and organizing things into
meaningful ways.

3. GESTALT THEORY
• Gestalt: configuration or organization
• The Law of Pragnanz:
there is a tendency for every psychological event to perceive
as meaningful, complete and simple.
• Visual perception:

4.  Concept formation:
1 4 9 1 6 2 5 3 6 4 9 6 4 8 1
 Learning based on an understanding of principles
(e.g. the squares of the digits from 1 to 9), is
retained almost perfectly for long periods of time
 In learning process, we experience the information
only after it has been transformed by the brain in
accordance with the Law of Pragnanz.

5. GESTALT PRINCIPLES
OF LEARNING
 Learning is a special problem in perception.
When an individual confronted with a problem, a
state of cognitive disequilibrium is set up and
continues until the problem is solved.
 According to the Law of Pragnanz, cognitive
equilibrium is more satisfying than cognitive
disequilibrium.
 Therefore, cognitive disequilibrium has motivational
properties that cause individual to attempt to regain
the balance in its mental system.

6.  learning is also a cognitive phenomenon.
The individual “comes to see” the solution
after pondering a problem.
 The learner thinks about all of the ingredients
necessary to solve a problem and puts them
together (cognitively) in one way and then
another until the problem is solved.
 theindividual gains an insight “a-ha” (now I
see) into the solution of a problem.

7.  Thorndike (a behavioral psychologist) believed that learning
was continuous in that it increased systematically in small
amounts as a function of reinforced trials
 while Gestaltists believed that the problem can exist in only
two states: unsolved and solved. Learning was
discontinuous

8. CLASSICAL EXPERIMENTS
BY KOHLER
 Between 1913 and 1917, the most
significant work on learning was done
by a prominent Gestalt theorist,
Wolfgang Kohler (1887-1967) at the
University of Berlin Anthropoid Station
on Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands.
 He then summarized his findings in
book: The Mentality of Apes (1925).
Wolfgang Kohler (1887-1967)

9.  Kohler used a number of
creative experimental
arrangements in which the
animals can clearly see its
goal but is unable to reach it
directly.
 In order to reach the goal, the
animal must put all the
ingredients necessary needed
to solve the problem in an
appropriate manner.
 For example, a banana was
placed just out of the reach of
an ape so that it must either
use a stick to reach it or put
two sticks together to reach it

10.  In another situation, an ape
named Grande was
exposed to its goal (a
bunch of banana that hung
at the middle of the room)
and a few boxes scattered
around.
 After it run through a
number of “hypotheses”
(a kind of cognitive trial
and error in mind)
concerning an effective way
to solve the problem,
Grande arranged the boxes
in stack to stand on for
reaching some bananas

11.  Asa conclusion from the experiments, Kohler
proposed that learning takes place through
an act of insight.
 Forinsightful learning to occur, the individual
must be exposed to all elements of the
problem. If not, its behavior will seem to be
blind and groping

12. THE MEMORY TRACE
BY KOFFKA
 Koffka (1935, 1963) attempted to link
the past with the present experience
through his concept of Memory
Trace, and highlighted the important
influence of individual’s past
experience to his present experience.
 He assumed that a present
experience gives rise to what he
called a memory process which is
the activity in the brain caused by an
Kurt Koffka (1886-1941) environmental experience.

13.  When a process is terminated, a trace of its
effect (memory trace) remains in the brain
which will influence all similar processes that
occur in the future.
 The stronger the memory trace, the stronger
will be its influence on the process; therefore,
ones conscious experience will tend to be more
in accordance with the trace than with the
process.

14.  In a problem-solving situation, the solution
becomes “etched” in one’s mind.
 The next time one is in a similar problem-solving
situation, a process that occurs will “communicate”
with the memory trace from the previous problem-
solving situation. The trace will influence the
ongoing process in which making the problem
easier to be solved.
 That is, one’s solves more problems that are
similar, he will become a better problem
solver.

15. IMPLICATIONS OF
GESTALT THEORY IN EDUCATION
 Teacher can stress meaningfulness and understanding.
Parts must always be related to a whole so that they have
meaning to the student.
 Create problem-based learning nature
 Learning by understanding principles rather than rote
memorization
 Providing students with similar problem-solving situation,
which new learning experience will “communicate” with the
previous solution traces: Practice makes perfect

16. PIAGET’S THEORY OF
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
 During his employment at the
Binet laboratory, Piaget found
that “intelligence” could not be
equated with the number of test
items they answered correctly,
but basically why some able to
answer but others were not
 Piaget observed his three
children as sources of
information in the development
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) of his cognitive development
theory

17. 2 basic inherent
tendencies
Organization Adaptation
- an ongoing process of arranging -the tendency to adapt to environment
information & experience into through 2 basic processes:
mental systems or structures.
Assimilation - the process by which
- This psychological structure is an individual uses an existing structure
known as scheme, which helping or ability to deal with the environment
us to understand and interact with
the outside world. Accommodation occurs when an
individual must change existing
-E.g., “sucking scheme”, “grapping scheme to respond to a new situation
scheme, “scheme of classification”

18.  Piaget assumed that all organisms have an innate tendency
to create a harmonious relationship between themselves and
their environment in his concept of Equilibrium.
 To him, adaptation is a balance of assimilation and
accommodation. If we apply a scheme to an event or
situation and it works, then equilibrium exists. However, if the
scheme does not produce a satisfying result, then the
disequilibrium exists. This motivates us to keep searching for
a solution through accommodation either by altering existing
structures or producing new ones.
Assimilation Accommodation
Adaptation

19. STAGES OF
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
a) Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)
 children deal directly with the environment by utilizing their
innate reflexes through sensory and motor schemes.
 Infant has no internal representation of objects until 18
months.
 Therefore, it is relatively easy to take something away from
them before the infant develops object permanence (“out of
sight, out of mind”).
 A major accomplishment in the sensorimotor period to move
from reflex actions to goal-directed activity.

20. b) Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)
 children begin rudimentary concept formation.
 They show the evidence of symbol use (words, images and
drawing).
 the preoperational child looks at things entirely from his own
perspective or his own frame of reference, known as
egocentrism.
 the child only able to think operations through logically in
one direction. They still haven’t develop the concept of
conservation and captured by the appearance of change.

21. c) Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years)
 children able to solve concrete (hands-on) problems in
inductive logical fashion.
 They are able to seriate. With the understanding of A > B >
C, the child know that B is smaller than A but larger than C.
 They are able to classify and systematically organize objects
into hierarchies of classes and subclasses.
Food
fruits meat vegetables
- apple - mutton - carrot
- banana - beef - tomato ........
- papaya

22.  They understand laws of conservation: they recognize that
the length, numbers, mass, quantity, areas, weight and
volume of objects remains the same even if the arrangement
or appearance is changed, as long as nothing is added or
taken away.
 they can engage in mental actions that are reversible. E. g.,
they can mentally reverse liquid from one container to another
and understand that the volume is the same even though two
containers are differ in height and width.
200ml
200ml

23. d) Formal Operational Stage (11 years onwards)
 Formal operational individuals able to solve abstract
problems in deductive logical fashion.
 They can ponder completely hypothetical situations. E. g.,
teenager thinks about options and possibilities, going to
university or college, marrying or not.
 The adolescent uses hypothetico-deductive reasoning.
Many alternative hypotheses in dealing with a problem can
be formulated, and data can be checked against each of the
hypotheses to make an appropriate decision.

24. IMPLICATIONS OF
PIAGET’S THEORY IN EDUCATION
 Students should be involved as active participants in the
learning process
 Teacher must understand and build around student’s
cognitive structure.
 Optimal learning involves mildly challenging experiences
for the learner (create appropriate level of disequilibrium).
 The materials need to be partially known and partially
unknown
 The part that is known will be assimilated, and the part that
is unknown will motivate students to take in the challenge
to accommodate it