Cognitivism in Education: Learning Theory, Examples, Limits

A correct answer today can hide a gap that appears next week. A learner may copy a method yet struggle to explain it or use it when the task changes. This makes attention, memory and prior knowledge useful starting points for studying learning.

The cognitive revolution brought thought and memory into focus during the 1950s and 1960s. Miller studied information processing, Chomsky challenged accounts of language, and Newell and Simon modelled reasoning. Neisser's Cognitive Psychology (1967) gave the field a clear name. The history helps explain why cognitivism covers several models rather than one teaching method.

For readers studying learning theory, this shifts attention from activity alone to the thought that an activity demands. A learner can copy a method without grasping it. Another can know the facts but fail to recall them when a task changes.

The theory gives us questions about attention, memory, knowledge and thought. Its value comes from using those questions to explain a response and test what changes over time. Each teaching method needs evidence of its own.

The guide starts with the core ideas, the history and the research behind them. It then compares the main learning theories and their limits. Classroom examples, a planning mini app and a revision quiz help you test your grasp of the ideas.

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Cognitive Learning Theory: Core Ideas

Cognitive learning theory studies the processes that turn experience into knowledge people can use. Researchers ask what is noticed, how it gains meaning and what can be recalled later. The key terms below name different parts of that problem.

You will also see it called cognitive learning theory or the cognitive approach to learning. It is one of the fundamental theories of learning that teachers meet in training, alongside behaviourism and constructivism.

The information-processor comparison encouraged researchers to ask what happens between an event and a response. Modern cognitive accounts study processes such as perception, attention, memory, problem solving, language and self-monitoring. The comparison offers a model to test against evidence.

Cognitivism is therefore broader than cognitive load theory and broader than one model of memory. It is also distinct from social cognitive theory, which centres reciprocal influences among people, behaviour and environments.

These distinctions change assessment. A teacher can check a first response, then remove the prompt and return to the idea later. They can also change the surface details of the task. This gives a fuller picture of what the learner can now do.

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Cognitivism in Psychology: The Cognitive Revolution

The cognitive revolution was a shift towards the study of thought and memory during the 1950s and 1960s. Work on language and reasoning linked psychology with computer science. The change brought new ways to test how people learn.

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What Was the Cognitive Revolution and Why Did It Happen?

The cognitive revolution grew as researchers sought accounts of memory, language and reasoning that went beyond observed responses. Information theory and computers offered tools for modelling the processes between an event and an action. A model made proposed steps easier to test.

Miller's historical account (2003) describes this meeting of disciplines in the 1950s. His 1956 work examined limits on processing information. Newell and Simon used computer programs to model aspects of reasoning, bringing proposed mental steps into a form researchers could test.

Chomsky's 1959 review of Skinner's Verbal Behavior challenged reinforcement-based accounts of language. The ability to form new sentences raised questions about underlying rules. This helped place language within the wider cognitive debate described by Miller.

Neisser's Cognitive Psychology (1967) brought work on perception, attention and memory together under a clear name. Later, Shuell (1986) reviewed cognitive accounts of learning, with attention to prior knowledge and the learner's active role in making sense of material.

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Was Cognitivism a Complete Break with Behaviourism?

Cognitivism grew from older work while research on behaviour carried on. The shift took place at different speeds in different fields and countries. Some old ideas returned to the centre of debate.

Mandler (2002) shows how the shift drew on work outside the United States. Watrin and Darwich (2012) question the story that research on behaviour died. Their accounts show why the story changes with the writer's point of view.

Key Thinkers and Related Cognitive Theories

The table follows selected contributions in date order. Each account asks a different question about how knowledge is held, used or monitored.

Ausubel's point runs through every row: what a learner knows shapes what they can learn next. An advance organiser gives a new idea an anchor. The guide to Ausubel's meaningful learning theory shows how this works.

These thinkers developed a family of models. Their work answers different questions about how knowledge is held, used and monitored.

Bruner's representations offer a question for discovery learning: what relationship should learners notice across actions, images and symbols? Yilmaz (2011) describes discovery and inquiry learning among the teaching methods of the cognitive perspective. Kirschner, Sweller and Clark (2006) set out a cognitive argument for explicit guidance in these approaches. A discovery task therefore needs a clear account of the support it provides.

These accounts address different questions. The names mark distinct ideas, even where their interests overlap.

Read more about Piaget, Bruner and Vygotsky in their own guides. The learning theories overview shows how the accounts relate.

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How Does Cognitivism Relate to Cognitive Science and Neuroscience?

Cognitivism offers models of mental processes that can be examined within cognitive science. Miller (2003) describes how psychology, linguistics, computer science and other fields were redefining themselves in the 1950s. Pylyshyn (1980) examines the computational view of cognition and its foundations. The question is what a model explains and which predictions can be tested.

For the link with neuroscience, keep a model of thinking separate from a literal description of the brain. Brette (2022) challenges the brain-computer metaphor, while Richards and Lillicrap (2022) ask researchers to define “computer”. The debate helps readers distinguish an explanatory model from a claim about how brains work.

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How Do Gestalt Psychology and Insight Learning Relate to Cognitivism?

Gestalt psychology treats the way a problem is seen as a key to solving it. Insight learning describes a new view of the problem that makes a solution clear. The focus is on how the parts form a whole.

Köhler's work on insight and Tolman's work on cognitive maps belong to the earlier history of cognitive explanations. Both provide historical roots for later models of memory and learning.

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How Does Cognitivism Explain Learning?

Attention, memory and prior knowledge work together when people learn. Attention selects information, while working memory helps a learner use it. Prior knowledge shapes meaning, and long-term memory supports later recall. The processes interact as the task unfolds.

This picture grew out of the information processing model of the mind. The diagram below turns each stage into one question you can ask of a lesson plan.

The next three sections take the stages in turn. In each, the useful move is to find where a learner's thinking stalled, not to label the learner.

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Attention and perception

Attention selects some sights and sounds for further work, while perception gives them meaning. A highlighted word may draw the eye. Its value depends on whether the learner knows why it matters.

Teachers can reduce competition for attention by removing decorative clutter and placing explanations close to the relevant representation. Signalling points out the step that matters. Its purpose is to direct attention towards the relationship learners need to understand.

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Working memory and prior knowledge

Working memory supports the temporary holding and manipulation of information. Its limits vary with the task and how information is grouped. Miller's 1956 paper covered several different tasks. Later work proposed a smaller focus of attention under controlled conditions (Miller, 1956; Cowan, 2001).

Functional demand depends on the task and the learner's knowledge. A novice may treat each symbol in an equation as a separate item, while an expert recognises a familiar structure. This links working memory closely with prior knowledge.

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Long-term memory, schemas and retrieval

Long-term memory holds knowledge that can shape later thought. A schema is an organised pattern of knowledge that can change with experience. It helps a learner interpret a new case, notice a relevant feature and combine details into a meaningful unit.

Atkinson and Shiffrin's 1968 model distinguished sensory registers, a short-term store and a long-term store. Sensory registers hold information from the senses. The model remains historically useful, but its short-term store should not be treated as identical to every later model of working memory. Baddeley's later account, for example, proposed several interacting components (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968; Baddeley, 2000).

Encoding helps form a memory. Retrieval brings stored knowledge back into use. Rehearsal, elaboration, spacing and retrieval practice are linked but distinct. Learning depends on what happens during these processes and how the idea is used later.

Suppose a learner hears a new word in science. Attention helps them notice it, while prior knowledge links it to a known idea. An example then gives the word a clear use. Later recall shows whether the link returns without the first cue.

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What Are Declarative and Procedural Knowledge?

A learner may state that fractions need equal-sized parts but still struggle to add them. Another may carry out the steps yet struggle to explain why they work. The distinction helps us ask which kind of knowledge a task reveals.

Memory architecture means an account of how memory processes and stores work together. Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) proposed linked stores and control processes. Baddeley and Hitch (1974) developed a working-memory account with interacting components. The models address the system; facts and skills describe kinds of knowledge used within it.

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How Did Bartlett Contribute to Schema Theory?

Bartlett's work placed organised prior knowledge at the centre of remembering, helping explain why people interpret and reshape what they recall. Schemas guide what seems meaningful and can change as experience challenges an existing pattern.

Bartlett's Remembering (1932) presented a theory of schema in which memory is a process of reconstruction. Piaget used schemas within an account of development. The broader idea concerns how existing knowledge helps a person make sense of new material.

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How Do Cognitive Load and Dual Coding Relate to Cognitivism?

Cognitive load concerns the demands a task places on working memory, while dual coding concerns verbal and non-verbal forms of representation. Both help explain learning, but each addresses a different part of the wider cognitive account.

A labelled diagram can connect a word with the relationship it describes. If the drawing and explanation compete for attention, the same material can make a task harder. The useful question is whether the two forms make the link clearer. Sweller (1988) studied cognitive load during problem solving. The cognitive-load review by Sweller, van Merriënboer and Paas (2019) explains how knowledge and task demands interact.

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What Is Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning?

Metacognition concerns knowledge about thinking and monitoring it, while self-regulated learning also involves managing goals, effort and actions. A useful learning cycle links planning before a task, checking progress during it and reviewing the result afterwards.

For example, a learner sets a goal to explain a science idea, checks whether each link makes sense and then tests recall. The review informs the next plan. Flavell (1979) anchors the monitoring account already used here. How People Learn II discusses how knowledge, motivation and context shape learning.

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Cognitivism vs Behaviourism vs Constructivism

Cognitivism explains change in knowledge and thought. Behaviourism focuses on links between the setting and visible action. Constructivism focuses on how learners read experience and build knowledge. These families overlap in class and ask distinct questions about learning.

A teacher may draw on more than one lens. A routine can be taught with clear cues, an explanation can manage memory demand, and a task can expose an incomplete concept. Combining lenses should clarify the decision rather than crowd the lesson. Read the specialist guides to behaviourism in learning and constructivist learning for their distinct histories and limits.

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Strengths, Limitations and Common Misconceptions

Cognitivism gives teachers a strong language for planning explanations, diagnosing errors and checking memory, but it is not a complete account of learning. Its constructs connect teaching decisions with research questions about attention, knowledge and thought. They also remind teachers that immediate compliance or fluency may hide fragile understanding.

Cognitive models can also understate the setting in which thinking happens. A task may feel unsafe, or key words may be new. A peer may make a hidden link clear. National Academies (2018) treats learning as an interaction among knowledge, motivation, culture and context.

There is also a risk of turning helpful models into labels. “Poor working memory” can hide a language gap, weak prior teaching or a task that asks for too many unrelated steps. “Low attention” can hide unclear goals or material that the learner cannot yet read.

The safest use is provisional. Name the process that can explain the difficulty, change one relevant feature and check the result across time and tasks. If the evidence does not improve, revise the explanation rather than blaming the learner.

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What Are the Limits of the Brain-Computer Metaphor?

The brain-computer metaphor helps researchers describe information processing, but it does not settle how living brains work. Critics question what the comparison explains, while defenders ask which meaning of “computer” is being used.

Brette (2022) challenges treating the brain as a literal programmed machine. Richards and Lillicrap (2022) argue that much of the dispute turns on definitions. Reading the two together separates a useful model from a claim about the nature of the brain.

This debate leaves a practical boundary. A diagram can describe proposed memory processes without proving that thought runs through fixed boxes. Evidence from behaviour and experiments must still test what the model predicts.

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Cognitivism in the Classroom: Examples and Strategies

The examples below put the theory to work in teaching. Read them as cases for testing an explanation: notice the learner's response, choose a teaching move and check whether the idea lasts.

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Secondary Worked Example: Year 7 Maths, Adding Fractions

Consider a Year 7 class learning why two fractions need a common denominator before addition. Several learners can copy the worked steps, yet write one half plus one third as two fifths when the layout changes. The teacher needs to distinguish performance from understanding.

Model response for this illustrative case: One half is three sixths and one third is two sixths, so the sum is five sixths. The explanation makes the equal-sized parts visible in the calculation.

That response shows the relationship behind the method. If a learner still adds the denominators, return to the bar model and equivalent fractions. Ask for another explanation before changing the numbers and removing the prompt.

This sequence also shows why “active” and “passive” are weak labels on their own. Learners may think hard while listening to a short explanation. They may also handle equipment without noticing the key idea. The better question is what thought the task calls for and what the response reveals.

The teacher uses the model for planning and review. It helps the teacher decide what to simplify, what to explain, what to rehearse and what to check again.

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Primary Worked Example: Year 4 Science, Evaporation

Model response to the washing question: The water turned into vapour and went into the air. This uses the evaporation idea in a new setting. If a learner says the sun “took it”, revisit the change from water to invisible gas, then ask them to explain again.

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Cognitivist Teaching Strategies

Cognitivist teaching strategies make attention, prior knowledge, memory and monitoring explicit. The broad theory can explain why a move may help. Each method still needs evidence for the subject, age, task and goal.

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1. Activate relevant prior knowledge

Use a short question, example sort or concept map to bring essential knowledge into use. Keep the prompt narrow. A broad discussion can activate interesting ideas without retrieving the knowledge needed for the next explanation.

A history teacher introducing the causes of a war can ask learners to order three known events and state one connection. The responses show which link needs repair before new material is added.

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2. Manage avoidable cognitive load

Reducing avoidable demand must not reduce the intellectual goal. A clear diagram can make a complex causal relationship easier to see while the reasoning remains demanding.

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3. Model, guide and fade support

The word scaffolding came from Wood, Bruner and Ross's 1976 study of tutoring. The term later became associated with Vygotsky in education. The scaffolding guide covers this history and the practical checks.

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4. Use retrieval and spacing purposefully

Roediger and Karpicke's experiments found gains in later recall under their study conditions. Apply the findings with their study conditions in mind (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). A later review of 50 classroom experiments found medium or large benefits in most of them, although few came from outside Western, wealthy countries (Agarwal et al., 2021).

Retrieval should serve the learning goal. Recall of key terms can help with words and facts. Transfer needs a question that makes learners choose, explain and use knowledge in a new case. See the retrieval practice guide for implementation depth.

Read the photograph description

An adult teacher prepares generic Recall, Explain and Apply prompts beside blank question cards and a planning notebook. The materials support preparation of separate checks and tasks. No completed learner response or measured retention is shown.

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5. Teach learners to monitor understanding

Ask learners which evidence changed their answer. This tells a teacher more than asking whether they understand. Learners need subject knowledge to monitor well.

Reflection works alongside teaching the content. The guides to metacognition and self-regulated learning own the detailed routines.

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6. Check retention and transfer

Immediate work tells a teacher what happened with the support still present. A later check asks what remains. A transfer task changes part of the setting and asks the learner to choose and use the idea. Keep the new task close enough to be fair.

When performance falls, compare the old and new demands before deciding what failed. Use the result to plan the next step. Some learners need the core fact again. Some need help seeing when it applies. Others know the method and need help explaining the link beneath it.

How well do these moves hold up outside the laboratory? The evidence check below gathers seven classroom studies and reviews, including two that found no difference in test scores and a review with mixed results.

Read the pattern, not the headline figure. The strongest results come from comparisons with rereading or doing nothing, so a new routine should still be checked against what your class already does well.

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How Teachers Use Cognitive Science in Lessons

Retrieval practice is the cognitive idea teachers describe most often, usually as a short quiz at the start of a lesson. What they share on social media is less about schemas or dual coding and more about where recall belongs and who decides. The table below sets three of their routines beside the research findings and their limits. In the quoted posts, RP means retrieval practice and MWB means mini whiteboards.

The disagreement concerns turning one good move into a rule for every lesson, in every subject. English and history teachers, in particular, say a fixed starter can shrink the subject.

This is the practical limit of cognitivism. The theory gives you questions about what learners notice, hold and retrieve. That judgement stays with the teacher who knows the subject and the class.

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Check a lesson through a cognitive lens

This planning check turns the theory into six questions. Tick only what the lesson plan makes explicit. An unticked item gives you a question to review in the plan.

Mini app · planning · cognitivism

A cognitive lesson check

Choose the statements you can support from the plan. The result shows which planning questions remain open.

Attention
The intended focus is clear and competing details are limited. Prior knowledge
The plan checks the specific prior knowledge the new learning needs. Working memory
The explanation and task reduce avoidable working-memory demand. Processing
Learners must explain, compare or choose, rather than copy alone. Retrieval
A later question checks what learners can retrieve without the original support. Transfer
A fair new example checks whether learners can recognise when the idea applies.

Review the plan Clear

Use this as a planning lens. It does not measure cognitive load or diagnose a learner.

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Cognitivism Revision Quiz

Choose an answer before opening each explanation. Use the quiz to check the distinctions in this guide, then try explaining one answer in your own words. The questions are for revision, rather than a scored assessment.

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Frequently Asked Questions

The questions below concern the edges of the theory. They compare the broad cognitive view with the work of named thinkers and with other views of learning. They also ask what evidence can tell us about a teaching method.

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Is Piaget a Cognitivist?

Piaget studied how children's knowledge changes as they grow. His work is often called cognitive-developmental constructivism. That means learners build and revise knowledge as they act on the world. Our Piaget guide explains his stages and how his account works.

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Is Vygotsky a Cognitivist or a Constructivist?

Vygotsky is often called a social constructivist because he placed learning with others at the heart of his account. Language and cultural tools help to shape how people think. His work is usually placed in the sociocultural tradition. The name points to the role of culture in learning.

His account asks how thought grows through talk and shared tasks. The Vygotsky guide explains these ideas in depth.

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What Is the Difference Between Piaget and Vygotsky?

Both described changes in how children think. Both accounts consider the learner's active role. Their main difference is where they place the explanatory weight. Use the Piaget guide and Vygotsky guide to compare their mechanisms in more depth.

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Is Cognitivism the Same as Constructivism?

Their main questions differ. Cognitivism focuses on processes such as memory and attention. Constructivism asks how learners build and revise knowledge from experience. The two share an interest in prior knowledge, so some accounts draw on both.

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What Is an Example of Cognitivism in the Classroom?

A teacher checks the knowledge needed for a new topic. They model one linked example and remove distracting details. Learners explain the key link, then recall it in a new case. Each step gives evidence about attention, knowledge, memory or transfer.

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Does Cognitivism Support Direct Instruction?

Cognitive accounts can support clear explanation and guided practice when a task is new or complex. Learners also need chances to practise and explain. The design depends on the goal, what they know and how they respond.

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Who Founded Cognitivism?

No single person founded it. Ulric Neisser named cognitive psychology in 1967, but Miller, Ausubel, Bruner, Atkinson and Shiffrin and others were already studying memory and meaning. In education, Ausubel, Bruner and Gagné did most to turn the ideas into advice about teaching.

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Is Cognitive Learning Theory the Same as Cognitivism?

These labels usually name the same broad family of ideas about memory, attention and how knowledge grows. Cognitive load theory is more specific. It asks how a task's demands relate to what a learner already knows.

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What Are the Main Principles of Cognitivism?

Learning is a change in knowledge, not only in behaviour. What learners already know shapes what they notice and understand. Working memory is limited, so new material should be sequenced and linked. Recall and use in a new setting are better evidence of learning than a correct answer straight after teaching.

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What Are the Four Types of Cognitive Learning?

Introductory guides use different lists of four types of cognitive learning. The number alone gives an unclear classification unless the author states which framework and distinctions the list is using. Check what each type names before comparing the lists.

For revision, distinguish processes such as attention and retrieval from forms of knowledge such as facts and skills. Use the list required by your course alongside its definitions. The memory models above show why these categories answer different questions.

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What Is Cognitivism in Ethics?

In ethics, cognitivism means that moral claims, such as “helping others is good”, can be true or false, so they express beliefs about what is right or wrong. That is a separate use of the word. This guide concerns learning.

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How Do You Pronounce Cognitivism?

Cognitivism is pronounced “KOG-ni-ti-viz-um”, with the main stress on the first syllable. The related word “cognitive” begins the same way and helps make the longer term easier to say. Say “KOG” first, then add “ni-ti-viz-um”.

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Where Can I Find Cognitivism Notes or a PDF?

You can download a one-page cognitivism study note from the classroom section, where the same note is also available as a full-size image and readable text. Use the revision quiz to check the key distinctions before returning to the reading.

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Where to Read Open-Access Research on Cognitive Learning Theory

The papers below are free to read in full. They address how people learn and what a model of the mind can explain. The recent group spans 2019 to 2023. Older work shows how the field grew. Start with the question each paper asks, then read how it tests or argues its case.

For comparisons across behaviourism, cognitivism, constructivism and sociocultural theory, use the learning-theories overview to locate the traditions. This reading list focuses on the cognitive side of that comparison.

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Recent Open-Access Papers on Learning, Language and the Mind

• Moreira and colleagues (2019): Retrieval practice in classroom settings. An open-access review of recall in classrooms. Already used in the evidence check, it helps readers examine what quizzing was compared with.
• Brette (2022): Brains as computers. An open-access critique of the brain-computer metaphor. Read it for the distinction between a model and a literal account of the brain.
• Richards and Lillicrap (2022): The brain-computer metaphor debate. An open-access reply that centres on the meaning of “computer”. Pair it with Brette to compare the arguments.
• Bolhuis, Crain and Roberts (2023): Language and learning. An open-access review defending a cognitive account of language. It offers a position in an ongoing debate about language and learning.

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Classic Research and Historical Accounts

Start with Shuell (1986) for the cognitive account of learning and Miller (2003) for a participant's history. Compare the history with Mandler (2002) and Watrin and Darwich (2012). Some publisher versions require library access. These are historical sources, separate from the recent open-access group above.

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Further Reading

• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2018). How People Learn II
• Sweller, van Merriënboer and Paas (2019). Cognitive architecture and instructional design: 20 years later
• Roediger and Karpicke (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention

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References

• Kirschner, Sweller and Clark (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: an analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching.

• Pylyshyn (1980). Computation and cognition: issues in the foundations of cognitive science.

• Sweller (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: effects on learning.

• Baddeley, A. D., and Hitch, G. J. (1974). Working memory.

• Bolhuis, J. J., Crain, S., and Roberts, I. (2023). Language and learning: the cognitive revolution at 60-odd.

• Brette, R. (2022). Brains as computers: metaphor, analogy, theory or fact?.

• Mandler, G. (2002). Origins of the cognitive (r)evolution.

• Miller, G. A. (2003). The cognitive revolution: a historical perspective.

• Richards, B. A., and Lillicrap, T. P. (2022). The brain-computer metaphor debate is useless: a matter of semantics.

• Shuell, T. J. (1986). Cognitive conceptions of learning.

• Watrin, J. P., and Darwich, R. (2012). On behaviorism in the cognitive revolution: myth and reactions.

• Yilmaz, K. (2011). The cognitive perspective on learning: its theoretical underpinnings and implications for classroom practices.

• Retrieval practice consistently benefits student learning: A systematic review of applied research in schools and classrooms
  Agarwal, P. K., Nunes, L. D., and Blunt, J. R. (2021). Educational Psychology Review, 33, 1409-1453.

• Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes
  Atkinson, R. C., and Shiffrin, R. M. (1968). In The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 2, 89-195.

• The use of advance organizers in the learning and retention of meaningful verbal material
  Ausubel, D. P. (1960). Journal of Educational Psychology, 51, 267-272.

• The episodic buffer: A new component of working memory?
  Baddeley, A. (2000). Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 417-423.

• A meta-analysis of the worked examples effect on mathematics performance
  Barbieri, C. A., Miller-Cotto, D., Clerjuste, S. N., and Chawla, K. (2023). Educational Psychology Review, 35, 11.

• Bruner, J. S. (1966). Toward a Theory of Instruction. Harvard University Press.

• The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity
  Cowan, N. (2001). Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 87-114.

• Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive-developmental inquiry
  Flavell, J. H. (1979). American Psychologist, 34, 906-911.

• Gagné, R. M. (1965). The Conditions of Learning. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

• The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information
  Miller, G. A. (1956). Psychological Review, 63, 81-97.

• Neisser, U. (1967). Cognitive Psychology. Appleton-Century-Crofts.

• Retrieval practice in classroom settings: A review of applied research
  Moreira, B. F. T., Pinto, T. S. S., Starling, D. S. V., and Jaeger, A. (2019). Frontiers in Education, 4, 5.

• How People Learn II
  National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). National Academies Press.

• Learning styles: Concepts and evidence
  Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., and Bjork, R. (2008). Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9, 105-119.

• Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention
  Roediger, H. L., and Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Psychological Science, 17, 249-255.

• Cognitive architecture and instructional design: 20 years later
  Sweller, J., van Merriënboer, J. J. G., and Paas, F. (2019). Educational Psychology Review, 31, 261-292.

• The role of tutoring in problem solving
  Wood, D., Bruner, J. S., and Ross, G. (1976). Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17, 89-100.