SGDC5034 MODELS OF INSTRUCTION

A Cognitive Learning Model

FIGURE 1.1

Cognitive learning is commonly described using a model similar to the one presented

in Figure 1.1. From the above figure we can see that stimuli from the environment

enter sensory memory, the part of our cognitive system that briefly holds information

until we attend to it (Mayer, 1998). For instance, when we read, we briefly retain the

words at the beginning of a sentence in sensory memory until we have read the

entire sentence. If this remembering didn’t occur, we wouldn’t be able to make sense

of the sentence, because the words at the beginning would have been lost before we

could make sense of it.

SGDC5034 MODELS OF INSTRUCTION

We then select some of the information that enters sensory memory by attending to

it, perceiving the meaning, and transferring it to working memory. Working memory

is the conscious, “thinking’ part of our cognitive learning system, and this is where

new information is organized and encoded.

Finally, we retrieve some information from long term memory, which is our

permanent information store, and we integrate the retrieved information with the

information we have in working memory (Mayer, 1998). This process of integrating

new and old information is how learning is made meaningful.