Cognitive learning involves experiencing, perceiving, and observing to learn, and is based on Gestalt and Piaget’s developmental psychology. It differs from behaviorist learning, which relies on rewards and punishments. Cognitive learning includes reading, listening, watching, and touching, and is not passive as the mind is active. Piaget’s theories involve accommodation and assimilation.
Cognitive learning is learning by experiencing, touching, hearing, or otherwise perceiving. This differs from other learning theories, such as the behaviorist one, in that it requires only the learner’s brain and a stimulus. Cognitive learning is based on the psychological theories of Gestalt and the developmental psychology of Jean Piaget. Included in the spectrum of the term is all learning done by independent reading, such as anything learned from reading a website or book.
Imitation is a form of cognitive learning, and while it is simplistic, it depends solely on observing another person’s behavior as a good way to achieve an end. More complex types of cognitive learning include reading, listening, watching and touching. Any learning that is done by experiencing can be classified in this category. This has led many people to classify this type of learning as “passive” learning, but while the body appears passive, the mind certainly isn’t.
The theories of Piaget and Gestalt psychology underlie cognitive learning. The primary tenets of Gestalt psychology are that people structure and organize their experience, that perception is not the same as reality, and that human experience must be understood as a whole in order to be explained. In essence, it claims that the body has more influence over how it organizes and stores information than previously thought.
Piaget’s theories go further and state that humans understand new events by both “accommodation” and “assimilation.” Accommodation is changing or shifting understanding to fit a new event. Assimilation uses existing schemas to understand a new event.
The term “cognitive” refers to processes that occur in the brain. The name “cognitive learning” may seem somewhat repetitive, because all learning must occur in the brain at some point. To distinguish between cognitive learning and other types of learning, it is helpful to think about behaviorist learning. This type depends on classical and operant conditioning.
Behavioral learning teaches students things by issuing a reward or punishment in response to a certain behavior. If someone wants his dog to sit on command, he would tell him to sit and then give him a treat when the behavior occurs. The dog, in response to this positive reinforcement, would repeat the behavior to get another treat. While some cognitive processes are obviously ongoing, learning is mostly due to the innate response to receiving a reward.
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